THE HISTORY 

OF 

Martha's Vineyard 

DUKES COUNTY 

MASSACHUSETTS , 

IN THREE VOLUMES 



VOLUME I 

GENERAL HISTORY 



BY 

CHARLES EDWARD BANKS. M. D. 

SURGEON, U. S. MARINE HOSPITAL SERVICE 




BOSTON 

PUBLISHED BY GEORGE H. DEAN 
191 1 






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5 



PREFACE 



The following pages represent the net results of twenty 
years of constant accumulation of material which I have 
collected to illustrate the history of the Island of Martha's 
Vineyard and its dependencies, although it need not be said 
that all of that time was actually employed in this task. Of- 
ficial duties have been a constant obstacle to its rapid fulfill- 
ment, and the prosecution of the work has been followed, at 
times under the most discouraging circumstances. Since it 
was begun, in 1890, when I first became interested in, and 
connected with, the Vineyard, I have not had the advantages 
of a continued residence on the Island, beyond a few weeks at 
a time, and have served at six different posts elsewhere in the 
meanwhile. This has entailed the transportation of my manu- 
script material, arranged in half a hundred volumes, over the 
entire eastern half of the country from time to time, and it can 
be said, with truth, that this history has been written in Maine, 
Canada, New York, Washington, Illinois, Florida, besides in 
our own Commonwealth, under conditions not favorable for 
systematic or continuous work. Being thus away from my 
"base of supplies," much of the time has been consumed in 
necessary correspondence connected with the records, in veri- 
fication of data obtained therefrom, and the numerous other 
incidental processes following this situation, all tending to 
lengthen the period required for its completion. 

These materials have been gathered from National, State 
and local archives, in England and America. The principal 
sources in England are the Public Record Office and the 
Prerogative Court of Canterbury, both of which I visited, 
together with some local depositaries examined by me in search 
of special information. In our own country the State Archives 
of New York and Massachusetts have yielded the greatest 
stores of original material, much of which has never before 
been published. The county archives at Edgartown have 
been the foundation of this history as far as persons and 
estates were involved, while the secular and church records 
of the several towns afford material for the construction of a 
narrative of these distinctive communities, as integral parts of 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

the whole. In addition to this there is in the Library of Con- 
gress, at Washington, a considerable collection of valuable 
original papers, of the date of the first quarter of the i8th 
century, consisting of documents, and drafts of legal instru- 
ments prepared by James and Jabez Athearn in their capacities 
as officials and attorneys. These I have consulted and will 
refer to as the "Athearn Mss." in my notes. In addition to 
these public depositaries I have had the benefit of numerous 
private papers held by families or collectors of ancient docu- 
ments, particular reference to which must be made in the text. 

Before making the customary acknowledgments of assist- 
ance given to the author in the furtherance of his work, grate- 
ful thanks should first be rendered to the "townsmen" of 
Edgartown, Tisbur)^, Chilmark, Oak Bluffs, and West Tisbury 
for their material aid in encouraging this undertaking, without 
which it might never have been placed before the people for 
whom it has been written. 

I next owe to Mr. W^illiam J. Rotch of West Tisbury a 
special debt of gratitude for his constant and hearty aid, and 
valuable counsel in the development of the work. He has ever 
been ready with his time and pen to procure material for me, 
besides which I have profited by his long and intimate knowl- 
edge of the island, its people and its traditions, when in need of 
light on an obscure matter. His enthusiasm has kept me from 
discouragement when others failed me. 

Mr. Beriah T. Hillman, as Register of Probate, has not 
only given me the usual facilities of his office, but has been a 
frequent contributor to my store of material, always responding 
to my requests for particular information. But for the special 
privileges cheerfully granted to me by Mr. Littleton C. Wim- 
penny, the Register of Deeds, much of my scant time for study- 
ing the records under his control would have been lost, and I 
refer to his courtesies with pleasure in acknowledging my 
appreciation of his kindnesses. The same may be said in con- 
nection with the Office of Clerk of Courts, where Mr. Samuel 
Kenniston afforded me every facility for examining the judicial 
records of the County. 

Mrs. Fannie Deane, of Edgartown, has loaned to me 
several historical papers prepared by her father, and Miss 
Annie F. Mayhew has rendered me distinct service in many 
ways, too numerous to mention. To these names I add that 
of Hon. Howes Norris, who rendered me special aid in the 
history of his native town. 



Preface 

The town clerks of Edgartown, Tisbury and Chilmark 
have extended to me, or those acting for me, the privileges 
necessary for copying the records in their custody, but fortun- 
ately for my purposes the town records of Tisbury, and the 
vital records of Chilmark, Tisbury and Edgartown have been 
printed since I began my labors. 

Mr. A. D, Hodges, Jr., of Boston, has been a valuable 
coadjutor in solving knotty genealogical problems, furnishing 
me with manuscript notes tending to their solution, at the 
evident expense of much time and labor, but "without money 
and without price." I hope he will find reward in the perusal 
of these pages to follow. 

To Judge Wm. Wallace Tooker, of Sag Harbor, L. I., 
the Indian place-names of the Vineyard were submitted for 
the advantage of his authoritative knowledge of the Algon- 
quian language, and he entered into the study of them with 
an interest which was continuous for several years. His deep 
learning and convincing logic in the rendition of these Amer- 
indian terms will appear throughout the book, and our people 
owe him a debt of gratitude for the time he has spent, as a 
labor of love, in paraphrasing our place-names for the benefit 
of the present and future generations. It affords me pleasure 
to tender him thanks for his generous attention to our local 
aboriginal nomenclature, which now, for the first time, becomes 
a new inspiration to us. 

In another place I shall consider the bibliography of this 
island, but it seems not out of place to refer to those who have 
gone before me in the same field. The late Richard L. Pease, 
of Edgartown, had in contemplation, as early as 1850, the 
preparation of a history of Martha's Vineyard, and for many 
years preceding his death, collected with the zeal of a true 
antiquary, everything of a manuscript nature which related to 
the island and its people. It was generally supposed that he 
was preparing such a work, but beyond writing occasional 
contributions for the local papers on genealogical subjects it 
is not known that he ever began the actual construction of a 
chapter of a general history. His collection of old historical 
manuscripts, which passed into the possession of his family 
after his death, was said by those who had seen it to be very 
valuable. It has recently been dispersed by the surviving heir 
of the estate. The genealogical portion of his papers, became 
the property of Prof. Alexander Graham Bell of Washington, 
D. C, who had become interested in the study of deaf-mutism 



History of Martha*s Vineyard 

and its heredity on the island, and under his direction, Mrs. 
Annie F. Pratt, of Chelsea, Mass. (the widow of one of my 
old and highly esteemed professional friends, the late Dr. 
John F. Pratt), began the arrangement of this material for 
future publication. An enormous amount of work was done 
by her, in person, and by the aid of others, notably the late 
Miss Harriet Marshall Pease, here and elsewhere, in the 
preparation of the genealogies of the Vineyard families, and 
their descendants throughout the United States. The extent 
of the task, and the vast quantity of material obtained through 
the course of several years, apparently caused its abandon- 
ment for other lines of research. With great liberality, char- 
acteristic of the man, this mass of genealogies was placed at 
my entire disposal for use in the preparation of my work. It 
has only been possible to employ a part of it as there is enough 
to fill a dozen volumes of printed matter in the manuscripts 
which Professor Bell's assistants had accumulated.^ 

To Edward L. Smith, of Boston, I owe more than a 
formal statement in acknowledging his ever-valuable assistance 
extending over the last years of my labor. A stranger to me 
personally, he tendered his aid freely while I was stationed at 
a distant post, and I found him a skilful and zealous coadjutor 
in solving many difficult historical and genealogical problems. 
His readiness to assist me has been seemingly without a sense 
of weariness in a work that had no special interest to him, 
and it has continued to this writing. Since coming to a more 
convenient location in the North I have had the opportunity of 
making his acquaintance and now claim a personal friendship 
begun under the above circumstances. 

Mr. William W. Neifert has also been a valued contributor 
to my store of material, and cordially responded to my frequent 
appeals for his aid while I was beyond the reach of libraries 
and records. 

It was my fortune to have the co-operation of the late 
Harriet Marshall Pease, during the last year of her life, and I 
recall with satisfaction the days I spent with her in comparing 
my notes with her ow^n in special lines. She freely opened up 
the manuscript treasures of her father's collection as well as 
her own and loaned me important papers for transcription. 
I regret that her decease has deprived me of the pleasure of 

'About 1890 the late Leander Butler, a native of Tisbury and resident of Boston, 
announced that he was preparing a history of the island, but it is not known what 
progress, if anv, he h;id made, before his death, which occurred soon after. 

8 



Preface 

placing this finished work in her hands, a work that she an- 
ticipated as a devoted daughter of her native isle. 

Dr. Walter H. Chapin of Springfield, Mr. John Mcllvene 
of Northampton and Mr. Fred S. Ferrey of Pittsfield have been 
specially helpful to me in tracing Vineyard families who mi- 
grated to that section of Massachusetts. 

For the indexes and some original drawings my thanks 
are due to Dr. M. M. Seiler, and the value of the work has 
been enhanced by this important portion of every historical 
and genealogical volume. The remainder of the original 
drawings were all done by the author specially for this history. 

Among the many friends interested in this work, either 
from local or family reasons, I may record the names of 
Miss M. B. Fairbanks of Farmington, Maine, and Boston, 
an expert genealogist, who descends from Vineyard stock, 
and has always been ready to give me the benefit of her 
knowledge of those families who migrated to Maine; Mrs. 
Annie Daggett Lord of Franklin, Penn., a loyal daughter of 
the Vineyard, has helped me along the lines of island lore 
gathered from her forbears ; while Mrs. Margaret N. Clag- 
horn of Vineyard Haven has given me bountifully of her store 
of the local traditions of Eastville. 

In the course of a decade and a half it is probable that 
some have aided me, whose names I do not now recall, but I 
have not intentionally omitted them in this recital, and must 
include them in a general expression of thanks to all who have 
in any way furthered my efforts to prepare a full and accurate 
history of the Vineyard. I should, however, be remiss if I 
failed to mention the aid and encouragement given to me by 
my daughters, who devoted many hours of their time to the 
mechanical drudgery of copying from printed authorities, or 
transcribing my field notes into permanent books of record. 

While all the foregoing references allude to the contribu- 
tory sources and responsibility for the literary material of 
which this book is the finished product, it is incumbent on 
the author to make a last expression of his acknowledgment 
to the one who has made its presentation to the public an 
assured fact — the publisher. Mr. George Hamilton Dean, a 
son of Martha's Vineyard, and a successful printer in Boston, 
has given his mercantile credit to the financing of the work 
as it passed through the press, and shares with the author the 
responsibility for it in its permanent dress. The durable paper, 
new and large type used in the text, and other mechanical 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

features, which only a skilful printer can obtain in artistic 
combination will be found in the pages that follow. If this 
is not apparent to those who consult this work nothing further 
that the author could say would help to such a conclusion. 

The end is now reached, and the story ready for perusal. 
A work of this kind has in it the countless sources of error in 
dates, names, and events, and it would be folly for me to 
assert for it more than a reasonable freedom from mistakes. 
It may be that it is wanting in some materials here and there, 
now in private hands, but with a knowledge that this work 
was being prepared, criticisms for such omissions will not 
have good standing. I have been diligent in gleaning materials, 
but the last fact will never be found for many years to come. 

CHAS. E. BANKS. 
January i, 191 i. 



10 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I. General and Statistical. page 

Situation and Area. Geology. Meteorological Conditions. 

Flora. Fauna. Population i7~3o 

CHAPTER II. The Aboriginal Inhabitants. 

Indian Name of the Vineyard. The Pokanauket Indians. 
Tribal Government. The Four Sachemships. Manners and 
Customs. Language. Myths and Traditions. Mythology. 
Weapons and Utensils. Population 3i-S7 

CHAPTER III. Early Voyages of Discovery. 

Verrazano. Gosnold. Champlain. Block and Christiaensen. 

Smith. Dermer. Pilgrim Period 58-72 

CHAPTER IV. What is the Correct Name of the Vineyard ? 

Documentary References. ''Martin's." "Martha's." Car- 
tography 73-79 

CHAPTER V. Purchase of Martha's Vineyard by Mayhew. 

Earl of Stirling. Sir Ferdinando Gorges. Mayhew's Asso- 
ciates. Date of Settlement by the Proprietors. . . . 80-88 

CHAPTER VI. The Legendary Settlement before 1642. 

The Pease Tradition. Alleged Landing of Pease, Vincent, 
Norton and Trapp. The Internal Evidence. The "Black 
Book" Incident. Character of the Tradition. Discrepancies 
in the Legend. Probable Sources of the Tradition . . 89-103 

CHAPTER VII. The English Family of Mayhew. 

Early Records of Name. County Families. Pedigree of May- 
hew of Dinton Co., Wilts. Parish Records of Tisbury Co., 
Wilts. Baptism of Thomas Mayhew. Will of Matthew 
Mayhew, his father. Barter Family. Thomas Mayhew in 
England 104-116 

CHAPTER VIII. Thomas Mayhew in Massachusetts. 

Emigration. Representative of Matthew Cradock. Residence 
at Medford. Removal to Watertown. Financial Reverses. 
Purchases Martha's Vineyard. Removal to the Island. . 11 7-1 26 

CHAPTER IX. Thomas Mayhew, Jr. 

Birth. Early Education. Removal to Vineyard. Personal 

Description of the Missionary. Family 127-130 



II 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

CHAPTER X. Independence of the Vineyard, .1642-1665. 

The First Government. Mayhew in Sole Authority. The 
People Dissatisfied. The Province of Maine as Suzerain 
Authority. The King Confirms Gorges' Title. . . . 131-138 

CHAPTER XI. Sale of the Islands to the Duke of York. 

The Gorges Title Ignored. Organization of the Dukes Prov- 
ince. Col. Richard Nicolls. Francis Lovelace. Mayhew 
Ignores New Authority 139-146 

CHAPTER XII. The Conference at Fort James, 1671 

Mayhew's Voyage to New York. Appointed Governor of the 
Vineyard for Life. Provisions for Local Government. Re- 
turns with the Charters for New Townships 147-153 

CHAPTER XIII. The "Dutch" Rebellion, 1673. 

Mutinous Vineyarders. The Rebels Demand Mayhew's Ab- 
dication. They Appeal to Massachusetts. Massachusetts 
DecUnes to Interfere. Independent Government Started. 
Similar Conditions at Nantucket 154-163 

CHAPTER XIV. Restoration of Mayhew's Authority, 1674-1682. 

Governor Andros Deals with the Rebels. Governor Mayhew 
Institutes Reprisals. Punishments Inflicted. Quiet Finally 
Restored 164-171 

CHAPTER XV. Administration of Matthew^ Mayhew, 1682- 
1692 
Appointment as Chief Magistrate. Manor of " Martins" Vine- 
yard Created. Matthew Mayhew, Lord of the Manor. Sale 
of Manor to Governor Dongan. Mayhew Family Nepotism. 
New Protestant Regime in New York. The Vineyard An- 
nexed to Massachusetts 17 2- 181 

CHAPTER XVI. The Vineyard and the Charter of 1692. 

Mayhew Element Opposes the Change. Simon Athearn courts 
the New Authorities. Mayhew's Surrender to Massachusetts 
Authority. The Paper "War" between Phips and Fletcher. 
New York Officials Deny Legality of Change of Jurisdiction. 182-194 

CHAPTER XVII. The Island Under Puritan Control. 

Mayhew's Acquiescence Insincere. Final Acceptance of the 
New Order. Rivalry of Athearn and Mayhew for Political 
Supremacy. Taxation of the Vineyard Towns. . . . 195-204 

CHAPTER XVIII. Political History of the Vineyard, 1700- 
1900. 

New York Again Asserts her Claims. John Butler Arrested in 
New York. Micajah Mayhew Asserts his Lordship. The 
Stamp Act. Later History. County Representation at 
General Court 205-212 

12 



Table of Contents 

CHAPTER XIX. The Missionary Mayhews. 

Thomas Mayhew, Jr. His Work Among the Indians. Con- 
temporary Accounts. Death at Sea. "Place on the Way- 
side." Thomas Mayhew, Sr. His Long Services. Rev. 
John Cotton. Death of Governor Mayhew. John Mayhew. 
Experience Mayhew. Zachariah Mayhew. Frederick Bay- 
lies 212-257 

CHAPTER XX. County of Dukes County. 

Organization and Jurisdiction. Origin of Name. Early 
Judicial Affairs. Capital Trials. Attorneys. Shire Town. 
Early Court Houses. Campaign for Removal of Shire Town 
to Tisbury. New Court House at Tisbury. Later Court 
Houses. Edgartown Finally made Sole Shire Town. County 
Jail. Seal of the County 258-293 

CHAPTER XXI. Military History, 1645-1775. 

The Colonial Wars. The Puritan Militia. King Philip's War. 
French and Indian Wars. The Louisburg Expedition. 
Crown Point Campaign. Muster Rolls of Vineyard Troops. 
The Siege of Quebec. Miscellaneous Service in Canadian 
Garrisons. Island Militia 294-320 

CHAPTER XXII. The Vineyard in the Revolution, 1774- 
1778. 

Pre-Revolution Sentiment. The Vineyard Joins the Move- 
ment. County Congress Adopts Resolutions. Committees 
of Safety Formed. The Vineyard Prepares for the Struggle. 
Organization of the Sea Coast Defence Trooj^s. Conserv- 
ative Element Betrays Timidity. Re-enlistment of the Vine- 
yard Companies. Muster Rolls. Martha's Vineyard and 
Nantucket Accused of Disloyalty. Petition for More Troops. 
Sea Coast Defence in 1776. Additional Troops Sent to the 
Island. Muster Rolls 321-354 

CHAPTER XXIII. The Vineyard Abandoned to Neutrality. 
Sea Coast Defence Abolished. One Company Retained at 
Vineyard. The Vineyard Left to its Own Devices. Aban- 
donment of the Island Considered. The Island Reduced to 
a Neutral Zone 355-3^6 

CHAPTER XXIV. Grey's Raid. 

Commander of the Expedition. Staff and Regimental Officers. 
The Fleet at Homes Hole. The Foraging Begins. Militia 
Officers Arrested for Concealing Arms. Incidents of the 
Raid. Amount of Plunder Obtained. Grey's Reports. 
The Fleet Departs 367-383 

CHAPTER XXV. Long Campaign to Obtain Redress. 

Action of the Three Towns. James Athearn Permitted to Visit 
the British General. Estimates of the Losses. Claimants at 
Edgartown. The British Commander Refuses Payment for 

13 



Table of Contents 

Cattle. Suffering of the People. Further Efforts to Obtain 
Redress. Beriah Norton Goes to England. Board of In- 
quiry Approves the Claim. War Ended. Colonel Norton 
Sticks to his Mission. Government of United States Refuses 
to Endorse Claim. Colonel Norton Again in England. . 384-403 

CHAPTER XXVI. Naval History in the Revolution. 

First Naval Engagement of War in Vineyard Sound. Capture 
of Transports "Harriot" and " Bedford." Capture of Trans- 
ports "Annabella" and "Howe." List of Privateers. Loss 
of " General Arnold." Picaroons. Miscellaneous Incidents. 
The Liberty Pole. Martyrs in Prison Ships and Prisons . 404-415 

CHAPTER XXVII. Military History, 1800-1900. 

The War of 181 2. Its Disastrous Effects on the Merchant 
Marine of the Vineyard. Mexican War. Civil War, 1861- 
1865. Quotas of Soldiers Furnished. Spanish- American 
War 4x6-429 

CHAPTER XXVIII. Whale Fisheries. 

First Known Vineyard Whalers. Growth of the Industry. 
Disastrous Effects of Revolution. Employment of Indians. 
Extension of Enterprise to Pacific Ocean. Hazards of the 
Occupation. Tragedies of the Sea. Burke's Tribute to our 
Whalers 430-451 

CHAPTER XXIX. Travel and Taverns. 

Ferry, Packet and Steamboat. The Packet Service. The 
Steamboat Service. Steam Railroad. County Highways. 
Old Tavern Days. Telegraphs, Cable and Telephones. . 452-467 

CHAPTER XXX. Life During Colonial Times. 

The Family. Christenings. Primogeniture. Social Distinc- 
tions. Divorces. Houses. Household Furnishings. Uten- 
sils. Literature. Paper and Writing. Colonial Visitors. 
Amusements. Tippling. Tobacco. Beating the Bounds. 
Computation of Time. Agriculture. Domestic Animals. 
Ear Marks. Currency. Practice of Medicine. Diseases. 
Small Pox. Burials. Division of Estates. Memorials of 
the Dead. Obituary Poetry 468-504 

APPENDIX 

Judicial Officers 507 

Representations to the General Court 509 

Militia Lists, 1757 513 

Army 518 

Naval Service 524 

Indexes 529 



14 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



Portrait of Author. (Frontispiece) page 

Old Cedars at West Chop 30 

Map of Vineyard with Indian Place-Names . . Facing 40 '^ 

Stone Implement 57 

Arms of Gosnold 72 

Earliest Map of Martha's Vineyard 78 

Marginal Text — "Brereton's Relation," 1602 79 

The Earl of Stirling Facing 80 ' 

Map of Martha's Vineyard, 1624 .."....... 84 

Arms of Sir Ferdinando Gorges 88 

Arms of Lord Stirling 103 

Church of S. John the Baptist, Tisbury, Eng 107 

Facsimile Baptismal Record of Thomas M'ayhew .... 108 

Font in Church, Tisbury, England 116 

Signature of Thomas Mayhew 117 

Cradock House, Medford, Mass 126 

Arms of Mayhew of Dinton 130 

Duke of York Facing 139 

Fort James, New York, 167 i 146 

Provincial House, New York 147 

Signature of Francis Lovelace 153 

Seal of the Duke of York 163 

Seal of Governor Mayhew 171 

Title Page. — "Massachusetts Psalter" Facing 250 

Rev. Frederick Baylies " 256 

Seal of Martha's Vineyard, 1655 293 

Signature of Zaccheus Mayhew 320 

Sir Charles Grey Facing 370 

Col. Alexander Leslie " 376 

Relics of Grey's Raid 383 

Map of Martha's Vineyard, 1784 Facing 396 

Signature of Beriah Norton 403 

Major-General William J. Worth, U. S. A Facing 425 

Souvenirs of Foreign Wars 429 

Whalers at Edgartown Wharf 439 ' 

Harpooning the " Right " Whale 451 

Strs. "Eagle," "Hamilton" and "Telegraph" . . .Fdciag 456 

Str. " Monohansett " Facing 458 

Claghorn Tavern Sign 463 

Our Earliest Ferry 467 

Title Page. — "Conquests and Triumphs of Grace" .Facing 478 

Gravestone of Rev. John Mayhew 504 



15 



History of Martha's Vineyard 



CHAPTER I. 

General and Statistical. 

situation and area. 

The island of Martha's Vineyard, situated five miles from 
the mainland, south of the "Heel of the Cape," lies between 70° 
27' 24'' (Cape Poge light) and 70° 50' (Gay Head light) west 
longitude, and between 41° 18' 04'' and 41° 28' 50'' (West Chop 
light) north latitude. Its longest measurement east and west 
is about nineteen and one-fourth miles, and its greatest width 
from north to south is nine and three-eighths miles, in which is 
comprised about one hundred square miles, or about sixty-four 
thousand acres of land. With the Elizabeth Islands (Gosnold) 
and Noman's Land it constitutes the county of Dukes County, 
the last two having about seven thousand acres of superficial 
area, making a total of about seventy-one thousand acres of 
actual extent in the entire county.^ 

GEOLOGY. 

Geologically considered, these islands are glacial moraines, 
and they form a part of that fringe of low land mainly com- 
posed of glacial drift, which extends from New York to Cape 
Cod.2 

^Dukes County, including Gosnold, according to our State Census, the onlv one 
giving opportunity for comparison, contains 33,645 acres of farming lands, in 371 farms; 
having 4,893 acres of cultivated land, appraised at $30.12 per acre; 18,000 acres of 
pasture or unimproved land at $9.34; 9,200 acres of woodland at $12.42, and 1,858 
acres of unimprovable at $1.43 per acre. (Report of Mass. Board of Agriculture, 1S83.) 

^The geology of this region has been made the subject of extended study bv Prof. 
Nathaniel Southgate Shaler, of North Tisbury, and the results are published by the 
U. S. Geological Survey. From this report the statements which follow have been ex- 
tracted in brief, and all credit therefore is due to our distinguished citizen, and not to 
the author of this book, who claims no special knowledge in geology. 

17 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

The eastern part of this Httoral fringe consists of a double 
belt, the outer line composed of Noman's Land, Martha's Vine- 
yard, Muskeget, Tuckernuck, and Nantucket, and the inner of 
the Elizabeth Isles and Cape Cod. The triangular contour of 
the Vineyard as we now know it is of post-glacial growth, as the 
large "ponds" now known as Sengekontacket, Lagoon, Tash- 
moo, Menemsha, and the many on the south side of the island, 
were once open bays or inlets, which have been closed in by the 
action of the sea through the formation of walled sand beaches, a 
fact particularly evident on the south shore. The narrow gut 
which divides Chappaquiddick is not always a constant condi- 
tion, as it has been closed at its lower opening within the memory 
of the living. It is probable that Chappaquiddick was once a 
part of the Vineyard, and the name given to it by the natives — 
"the Separated Island" — may indicate that in their traditional 
knowledge the breach between the two was made by the action 
of the waves and storms. Nor are these the only changes 
of importance in the progress of the ages ; for it is regarded 
ascertain "that Martha's Vineyard has been connected with 
the mainland since the close of the glacial period. The animals 
and plants of the island are in no way peculiar. We can hardly 
believe," says our authority, "that several large-seeded plants 
and many of the land animals have found their way across the 
five miles of water which separates the Vineyard from the 
continent." ^ 

The surface of the Vineyard is distinctly divided into three 
parts. On the north side, extending from West Chop to Gay 
Head, there is a belt of hills composed of sand, gravel and bowl- 
ders, averaging a mile and one-half in width, and rising in height 
from about fifty feet at its eastern extremity to three hundred 
and ten feet at Peaked and Prospect hills in Chilmark. South 
of this belt the surface passes suddenly into a plain on the east- 
ern half of the island, gradually sloping to ten feet above the sea 
level at the shore. West of this is the Gay Head peninsula, 
where the district is again hilly, rising to an average height of 
about one hundred and fifty feet above the sea level. The ex- 
ternal aspect of this island differs materially from Nantucket, 
although both are of the same geologic formation, the detritus of 
glacial floes, probably representing the extreme southern edge 
of the drift deposits. Nantucket is practically devoid of trees, 
while the greater part of the Vineyard is forest-clad, and in 

'The channel of Vineyard Sound does not exceed seventy-five feet in depth. 



General and Statistical 

earlier days undoubtedly had a much heavier growth than at 
present.^ 

The drift material of which this island is composed consists 
of four groups of glacial deposits: — ground moraines or till, left 
by melting of the ice sheet, frontal moraine deposits pushed be- 
fore the glacier, kame (i. e. comb-like) deposits brought hither 
by sub-glacial streams, and terrace deposits formed by tidal 
action.- Of the first named the example is the Gay Head pla- 
teau, which rests on a bed of tertiary clay. The deposit averages 
about ten feet in depth, and is composed of sand, pebbles, and 
the pulverized granitic rocks from the mainland. The second 
group, or frontal moraine, is represented by the hills on the north 
shore between Tashmoo and Menemsha, which were pushed 
up by the face of the floe, and the surface is marked by the depo- 
sition of countless massive blocks of syenite, so numerous "that 
on the steeper parts of the hills the bare masses of angular frag- 
ments remind the observer of Cyclopean masonry." The 
amount of detrital deposit in this belt is greater than any of a 
similar nature in New England.^ None of these large blocks 
or bowlders are believed to have come from a greater distance 
than fifty miles, and the total deposit represents an erosion of 
about a thousand square miles. 

The third named group, the kames, from a Scotch word 
signifying a comb, is represented by the drifts on the eastern 
shore of Lagoon pond, on Chappaquiddick and on the north- 
east shore of Tashmoo pond. They are composed of the usual 
detrital material in strata formed into plateaux having irreg- 
ular depressions or valleys as a result of swift currents of 
sub-glacial streams cutting through them. The last, or 
terrace drift, composes the great "Ragged Plain" sloping 
southward with gentle undulations to the sea, a formation 
better shown on this island than in any other part of New 
England. 

The source of all this deposit, from its character, is believed 
to have been the region between Newport and the head of 
Buzzard's Bay. The great bowlders of quartz, feldspar, and 

'Prof. Shaler thinks it due to greater exposure to sea wdnds on Nantucket, and 
the browsing of young trees by sheep in open pastures on that island. 

"There are no lenticular hills or "drumlins" on the island, and but one group of 
"Indian ridges" or warlike variety of the kames. 

'Prof. Shaler estimates this at half a cubic mile, or a mass as large as Monad- 
nock Mountain. He further estimates that the ice front remained at this point 
twelve to twenty-four thousand years. There is no trace of it in the sea south of the 
island. 

19 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

hornblende, the largest of which contains about a hundred 
cubic feet, now to be seen on the Chilmark hills, are typical 
of the region indicated on the mainland. There are manv 
other rare varieties of rock found in the Gay Head district, 
such as ilmenite, or titaniferous magnetic iron ore, which only 
occurs in a solitary circumscribed area in the town of Cumber- 
land, R.I., the only known place in New England. A fragment 
weighing ten pounds was discovered near the western end of 
Squipnocket pond, actually imbedded in the drift deposit. 
Cretaceous rocks occur at two points; one south of Indian 
hill and east of a ruined building known as the ''Wood school 
house," and the other on the eastern shore of Lagoon pond, 
both of very limited areas. The tertiary beds of the island 
are the most northern of all the known deposits of that age on 
the eastern versant of North America, but only a small portion 
of these beds is exposed to view, at Gay Head and the base 
of the Nashaquitsa cliffs. 

Gay Head deserves special mention, as it is one of the 
most striking geologic phenomena on the Atlantic coast, and 
is a unique exhibition of Nature in one of her rococo moods. 
With its escarpment of over six thousand feet showing parti- 
colored sands and clays to the height of eighty feet, it well 
merits the name of '*Gay," although its earliest name, given by 
Gosnold, was Dover Cliffs, in honor of the English seaport.^ 
Divided into three portions, it faces north, west, and south- 
west, showing steep beds of extremely vivid clays of contrasting 
colors from dazzling white to the nearly pure black carbon- 
aceous layers, and intermediate hues of red, brown, green, 
and yellow. The white sandbeds of powdered granitic rock 
are the most abundant element, and the next most conspicuous 
beds are those of red clay, probably pulverized sandstone like 
that of the Connecticut valley. The "greensand" so called, 
consisting of the browTiish, yellowish, and greenish clays, are 
at the northern end of the cliffs, and in them are found numerous 
fossils, such as vertebrae of whales, sharks' teeth, crabs, many 
lignites, and some few specimens of fossil resin.- From this, 

' It will be remembered that the Dover cliffs are a pure white. It seems proper 
to suggest here that this unique natural phenomenon at Gay Head should be made a 
public reservation, and thus save it from despoilment by commercial exploiters, who 
are denuding it, as they did the Palisades of the Hudson, of its wonderful natural 
attractions. 

^ In the Boston Journal of Natural History (1863) is a description of "The Fos- 
sil Crab of Gay Head." In the region of Cotamy bay there have been found a 
number of raoUuscan fossils, an oyster of exogyron aspect, a pecten of costata type, 

20 



General and Statistical 

Professor Shaler argues that the Gay Head was part of a delta 
of a great river, which he terms the Vineyard river. 

The geology of the Elizabeth Islands and Noman's Land 
differs in no important particular from that of the Vineyard, 
being of the same general character. 

The shore line of the Vineyard, particularly on its south- 
ern littoral, presenting an unobstructed and projecting front 
beyond the trend of the mainland to wave action, is under- 
going gradual erosion. The late Professor Henry L. Whiting 
estimated the recedence on the south beach at about two hun- 
dred feet, at Nashaquitsa cliffs two hundred twenty feet, 
and at Chilmark pond, one hundred eighty feet in a period 
of forty years covering his work in the coast survey. In 
addition to this, what he terms the "overshot" into the ponds 
on that side represents encroachments greater than the effects 
of normal sea-dash, amounting to betwxen five and six hun- 
dred feet in the Chilmark and Tisbury ponds. ^ In conse- 
quence of this, a group of small ponds connecting the Great 
Herring pond with Katama bay have been obliterated. This 
included the Crackatuxet pond of the first settlers. The tip 
end of Chappaquiddick on which the lighthouse now stands 
was once an island known early as Capawack and later as 
Natuck. It was doubtless connected by the great storm of 
1722, which also closed an opening into Pocha pond."' The 
whole eastern fringe of Chappaquiddick was probably an 
outer bar of beach separated from the rest of the island. From 
analogy and historic references it can be inferred that Squip- 
nocket pond was open to the sea on the south after the settlement 
by the whites. A document dated 1694 refers to the neck 
of land joining Gay Head to Chilmark, where the main road 
now runs, as "the place where the casks were rolled over out 
of one into the other pond when a shippe was left on the south 
side of the island."^ The present drawbridge on the "Beach 
road" connecting Cottage City, spans an opening into Lagoon 
pond which was made about sixty years ago. The original 
opening was at the western end of the beach, adjoining Vine- 
yard Haven, and the ferry to Woods Hole in early days found 
its harbor inside the opening. Similar phenomena have been 

and about a dozen other allied varieties of the Lower Cretaceans. Post-glacial fos- 
sils have also been found at Gay Head, similar to those discovered at Sankaty Head, 
Nantucket. 

'Letter dated September 15, 1886. 

*Dukes Deeds, \'T, 401. Testimony of Benjamin Norton. 

^Ibid., I, 27. 

21 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

observed at the south opening of Katama bay in very recent 
years, and the changes in that strip of beach due to sea-dash 
have been frequent and striking. The north side of the island 
has suffered less, but both East and West Chops have shown 
considerable erosion, and within the past decade the general 
government has fortified these two points by jetties and rip- 
rap to prevent further loss and the shoaling of Vineyard Haven 
harbor. 

METEOROLOGICAL CONDITIONS. 

The climate of the Vineyard is obviously an insular cli- 
mate and therefore the temperature ranges are not as marked 
as on the mainland, due in a great measure to the mitigating 
effects of the ocean. 

From official data of the weather bureau the annual 
mean maximum temperature is found to be 59.2°: and the 
annual mean minimum, 43.7°: thus making an annual mean 
of 51.4°. The records show that the hottest month in the 
history of the station at Vineyard Haven was July, 1894, wuth" 
a mean of 73.4°: and the coldest month was January, 1893, 
with a m.ean of 24.9°. The minimum temperature rarely 
goes to zero — about once each season — and remains only a 
few hours at most. It does, however, go below 32° on an 
average of 86 times each year. The absolute minimum record 
is — 7° on Jan. 29, 1888. The maximum reaches 90° about 
three times in each two years. The absolute maximum noted 
is 96° on July 29, 1892. 

Light frosts occur generally during the first week of Octo- 
ber, the earliest record being September 22. The average 
date of the first killing frost in autumn is October 25. The 
average date of the last killing frost in spring is April 18, and 
the date of the last killing frost known, is May 24. 

The average precipitation of the seasons is: spring, 11.7 
inches; summer, 9.9 inches; fall, 12.4 inches; winter, ii.i 
inches; making an annual mean of 45.1 inches. The annual 
mean snowfall is ;^t, inches. Precipitation in measurable 
amounts occurs on 130 days of the year. The wettest month 
within the history of the station was September, 1888, with 
a total of 1 1.4 inches, and the dryest was the month of the same 
name in the year 1897, with a total of only 0.80 inch. 

The prevailing winds are from the northwest during the 
colder months, and from the southwest during the remainder 
of the year. The average hourly velocity is 9.6 miles. The 

22 



General and Statistical 

average number of gales (40 miles or over) is eight per year. 
Dense fog prevails on thirty-five days of the year, hail on one day, 
thunderstorms on thirteen; the average number of clear days 
is 137, partly cloudy, 80, and cloudy, 148.-^ 

The temperature of Martha's Vineyard is much more 
favorable than in most of the state, not varying much from 
that of Nantucket, where there are 230 days without frost, 
while the other parts of the state only enjoy from 140 to 160. 
The Vineyard, however, has some advantages over Nantucket in 
not receiving the sharp northeast winds which sometimes 
sweep down around Cape Cod but hardly ever touch this 
island. It is a noticeable fact that while the mean summer 
temperature of the water in Massachusetts bay is 52°, in Buz- 
zard's bay on the south and in the Sound it is 72°. The in- 
fluence of the Gulf Stream seems to be very perceptible on the 
south shore; a number of times within the past thirty years 
the island has been visited by the golden mullet, a very delicate 
fish of the South, and never known to be north of the Caro- 
linas. Some years ago a true pelican was shot in one of the 
salt ponds opening into the sea. 

Once or twice in a generation the harbors and the surround- 
ing waters will be frozen enough to prevent navigation, as in 
the recent winter of 1905. The winter of 1856-7 is also 
remembered by the older inhabitants as one of such severity 
as to cause similar effects, but as a rule the winters are "open" 
for the reasons above given. Parson Homes of Chilmark 
records the winter of 1725-6 as of exceptional severity, the 
snow lasting from November through the middle of March. 

FLORA. 

The flora of the islands first attracted the attention of 
the historian of the Gosnold expedition. He said that "the 
chief est trees of this island are Beeches and Cedars," and in 
another place he refers to the "Cedars tall and straight, in 
great abundance." The other trees mentioned by him are 
the following: "Sassafras, Cypres trees, Oakes, Walnut trees 
great store, Elmes, Beech, Hollie, Haslenut trees, Cherry trees, 
Cotten trees. Other fruit trees to us unknowen." He said 
the islands were full of "high timbered Oaks, their leaves thrice 

'These facts were compiled for the author by William W. Neifert of the Weather 
Bureau, who was in charge of the local station at Vineyard Haven for a number of 
years. This station was estabhshed Nov. 6, i8S6, and discontinued June i8, 1900. 
These records, therefore, cover a period of fourteen years. 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

so broad as ours," and that the walnut trees were in abundance, 
"the fruit as bigge as ours, as appeared by those we found 
under the trees, which had Hen all the yeare ungathered." 
Of the cherry trees he noted that "the stalke beareth the 
blossomes or fruit at the end thereof, like a cluster of Grapes, 
forty or fifty in a bunch." Sassafras trees were in "great 
plentie all the Island over." Among the edible flora he reported 
some "low bushie trees, three or foure foot in height, which bear 
some kinde of fruits," which may have been the beach plum, 
a variety of the prune family, now common on the island. 
Others noticed and listed were "Strawberries, red and white, 
as sweet and bigger than ours in England, Rasberries, Goose- 
berries, Hurtleberries ( i. e. huckleberries) , and such an in- 
credible store of Vines, as well in the woodie parts of the Island, 
that we could not goe for treading upon them." He said they 
were "in more plenty than in France."^ The only vegetable 
mentioned by him are Peas, "which grow in certeine plots 
all the Island over." It seems certain that he failed to observe 
the other legume, cultivated by the natives, the bean,'^ and 
it is quite probable that, had he gone into the interior of the 
Vineyard, he would have found fields of corn, and squash 
vines trailing through them.^ Corn was pre-eminently the 
Indian's cereal, called by him "weatchimin," and our word 
"succotash" is derived from their term " msickquatash " which 
means literally, corn beaten in pieces. Ground-nuts, "good 
meat, & also medicinable," probably the bulbs of the lily 
family, such as may be found now at Squipnocket, which de- 
rived its name from the red lily growing in its marsh soils, 
were also noted by the journalist of the expedition who adds:- 
"They also gave us of their Tobacco, which they drinke greene, 
but dried into powder, very stronge and pleasant and much 
better than I have tasted in England."* This was, probably, 
the so-called "Indian tobacco" of this region, the lobelia, 
although they may have obtained the Virginian variety by a 

^These xines gave the island its name. Remains of them may be seen on north- 
ern and western hills of Chilmark and Gay Head. 

*It is possible that he mistook beans for pease, of which he saw a large quantity. 
The English-Natick dictionary of Trumbull does not contain an Algonquian word 
for " pease," and it seems that the journalist must have seen the bean, which we now 
know as one of the native vegetables. 

■'Indian corn or maize was also knov.-n as " turkey wheat" by our ancestors. 

*" Drinking" tobacco is the ancient term for smoking that weed. 

" I did not, as you barren gallants do, 
Fill my discourses up drinking tobacco." 

Chapman, All Fools, II, i. 

24 



General and Statistical 

system of barter from tribe to tribe/ "We had, also," writes 
Brereton, "of their Flaxe, wherewith they make many stringes 
and cords, but it is not so bright of collour as ours in England : 
I am persuaded they have great store growing upon the maine." '^ 

Of the trees mentioned in Brereton's list, the cypress 
has disappeared, and if there be any hazelnut or "cotton" 
trees on the island at present, they are unknown to the author. 
The cedar, also, has practically varnished, and only gnarled 
and bent specimens survive as the relics of "tall and straight" 
ones seen by the first explorers. The evergreen trees, pines, 
firs, spruce, have scattered growth still on the island, but their 
early extent is problematical. Oaks, great and small, are the 
principal constituents of our forests, and the great plain land 
is a dense jungle of the "scrub oak" w^hich thrives despite 
repeated devastating fires covering large areas. Professor Sha- 
ler states that "originally this region was heavily wooded, 
mainly with coniferous trees, the present prevalence of the 
deciduous species being due to the peculiar endurance of their 
roots in the fires, a capacity which does not exist in the con- 
ifers." 

Apple trees were brought to Massachusetts in 1629, but 
there is no record of the date when this fruit was first cultivated 
here on the island. The earliest mention of it is in 1660, 
when "sider" was made a prohibited article of sale to the 
Indians, but apple trees are not specifically named until 1744. 
Quince trees were found at Tashmoo in 1721, but both these 
dates are accidental references, and it is probable that they 
were planted many years before. An "orchard" is mentioned 
at Chickemmoo in 1688. 

Additions to the list of small fruits given by Brereton, 
now to be found on the island, will include the blackberry 
and cranberry, both undoubtedly native products. Cran- 
berries were first mentioned in the records in 1755, at Nasha- 
moiess. 

To attempt an enumeration of the Vineyard flora would 
require space out of proportion to its relation with the scope 
of this w^ork. It will be sufficient to say that a specialist who 
has made a study in this field for fifteen years has analyzed 
and classified over seven hundred species of plant life found 
upon the island. Similarly, the marine algae show almost an 
infinite variety of delicate beauty in form and color. 

^Brereton refers to their pipes, made out of " red and white clay" hard dried, 
showing that they were of the Gay Head clay. 

*Flax was sown at Pocha in 1723. (Dukes Deeds, IV, 14.) 

25 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

FAUNA. 

Brereton is our first authority on the fauna of the Vine- 
yard, although we cannot be sure that he has not included in 
his lists some animals seen by him on the mainland. He 
enumerates "Deere in great store, very great and large, Beares, 
Luzernes (lynx), Blacke Foxes, Beavers, Otters, Wilde-Cats, 
verie large and great. Dogs like Foxes, blacke and sharpe 
nosed (and) Conies (hares)." It is known that deer can 
swim across a stretch of water as wide as Vineyard Sound, 
and their habitat on the island is not improbable, but the same 
cannot be said of the *' beares." 

The wild animals of the Vineyard have practically disap- 
peared, and the formidable list of Brereton contains only two 
which can be said to exist today, the fox and rabbit. It may be 
that some of our dogs might claim a pedigree dating from 
the "sharp-nosed" kind seen in the beginning of the 17th 
century, but they have long since been domesticated. 

Brereton also speaks of reptiles, but confines himself to 
"Snakes foure foot in length, and sixe inches about, which 
the Indians eat for daintie meat, the skinnes whereof they 
use for girdles." There are but a few varieties of snakes on 
the islands, all of a harmless species. 

His list of birds includes the following varieties, some of 
which are evidently extinct at the present day: "Eagles, Hern- 
shawes (herons). Cranes, Bitters (bitterns or small herons), 
Mallards, Teales, Pengwins, Ospreis, and Hawks, Crowes, 
Ravens, MeM^es (gulls), Doves, Sea-pies (oyster catchers), 
and Blacke-birdes with carnation wings." The penguin 
is essentially an inhabitant of the Southern hemisphere, and 
has disappeared from these waters if it ever came here. 

It is not known that a comprehensive study of the birds 
which nest on the Vineyard has ever been undertaken, but 
observers have made records of the arrival of the migrants in 
their annual flights to the North. The list may serve to show 
the varieties which find their way to our woods and fields, 
although it is not offered as a complete enumeration of the 
many aerial and aquatic birds which become temporary so- 
journers on the island. It is as follows: robin, crow and red- 
winged blackbird, meadow lark, blue jay, chickadee, red- 
headed and golden-winged woodpeckers, song, tree, and vesper 
sparrows, orchard and Baltimore orioles, white-breasted nut- 
hatch, fish, hen, pigeon, and sparrow hawks, gray owl, grosbeak, 

26 



General and Statistical 

chewink, king fisher, red thrush, flycatcher, barn and chimney 
swallows, cuckoo, redstart, whippoorwill, and the yellow, 
blue, cow, cat, king, snow, humming, and cedar birds. 

The many ponds on the south side of the Vineyard offer 
attractive feeding grounds for the game birds, and with the 
exception of the marshes of the Cape this region is one of the 
few virgin sections left for these hunted birds to find a resting 
place at night, or in stormy weather. 

The list of birds would not be complete without special 
mention of the heath-hen or pinnated grouse, which has been 
on the island for at least a century. It was probably brought 
here for breeding as a game bird, and in 1824 laws for its pro- 
tection were passed by the voters of Tisbury, where it is found 
to-day in its feeding grounds on the plains. A cock, hen, and 
their young may frequently be seen from the state highway 
in that town.^ 

Brereton gives a list of fishes which he said he saw "not- 
withstanding our small time of stay." These are comprised 
in the following list: "Whales, Tortoises, both on land and 
sea. Scales, Cods, Mackerell, Breames, Herrings, Thornbacke 
(ray or skate). Hakes (codlings), Rockefish, Dogfish, Lobsters, 
Crabbes, Muscles, Wilks (snails), Cockles, Scallops, (and) 
Oisters." 

To the shell fish named by Brereton should be added that 
valuable bivalve the clam, of which there are two abundant 
varieties, the "poquauhock" of the Indian, or round clam 
("little necks"), and the "sikkissuog" or long clam, with 
soft shell. These are found principally in the waters about 
Chappaquiddick and Capoag pond, and their gathering for 
the market constitutes a large business for the fishermen of 
that section. Oysters have practically disappeared, but at 
one time must have been plenty in the ponds bordering the 
south beach. Indeed, one of them is named Oyster pond, 
presumably because of its being one of the principal places 
where the laeds existed. In 1792, the citizens of Tisbury found 
it necessary to pass a vote prohibiting all persons "from Catch- 
ing Oysters in the Pond Called Newtown Pond, to carrey to 
Market off the Island of Marthasvineyard, or to sell by Cart 
Loads on the Island." 

The fish which inhabit these waters and form one of the 
profitable industries of the island, are in addition to those 

'It is traditional that when an effort -n-as made in the State Legislature to secure 
a law for the protection of the heath hen, an error of the printer in the title of the 
bill made it read " An Act for the protection of the Heathen of Martha's Vineyard." 

27 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

enumerated by the journalist of Gosnold's voyage, the striped 
bass, blue fish, sword fish, porgie, tautaog, chogset, sque- 
teague, eels, " Spanish mackerel," so-called.^ 

Of the fresh water fish, it is difficult to determine what 
varieties are native and what may be artificially stocked, but 
the various ponds and streams yield trout, perch, black bass, 
and pickerel. 

POPULATION. 

From 1 64 1 to 1670, the period elapsing between the first 
settlement at Great Harbor and the beginning of the new town 
at Takemmy, the entire English population was resident at 
the east end of the island. We have no records bearing upon 
this subject at that early date, but we can reach some proximate 
and satisfactory conclusion from a knowledge of the families 
who lived here at that time. The first list of proprietors em- 
braces nineteen men, some of whom were not then married, 
and of the others we are in possession of the number of their 
children. It is possible to estimate sixty-five persons as con- 
stituting the total of whites at that time. In 1660, a second list 
gives twenty-six different proprietors, and the same process 
yields about eighty-five persons, and by the end of the next 
decade there might have been a hundred, in round numbers. 
The settlement of Tisbury brought, between 1670 and 1680, 
about a dozen families, so that in a statement of the relative 
strength of the Indians and whites on the Vineyard in 1675, 
it was reported that there were "not above forty men on the 
island capable of bearing Amies." "^ This means men between 
the ages of sixteen and sixty, and reckoning three-fourths of 
them as married and heads of families, with six as a multiple, 
we can place the population at 180, at the time of King Philip's 
War. No further data until 1692 enables us to estimate the 
intervening increases. In that year Simon Athearn informed 
the General Court: "We are but about fifty 7 or 8 famelys 
on the Hand," and allowing two families for the Elizabeth 
Islands, making sixty, and computing the ratio which has 
since obtained in the county, we are justified in calculating 
350 as the total at that time. ^ Probably at the close of the 1 7th 
century there were four hundred English people residing 
within the limits of Dukes County. There is no subsequent 

'Tisbury records, page 284. 

^N. Y. Col. Mss. (Council Minutes), II (2), 51. 

•''Mass. Archives, CXII, 422. 

28 



General and Statistical 

statement or record for fifty years, during which time immi- 
gration and the natural increase had greatly affected the numer- 
ical strength of the white race. In 1742, a contemporary 
writer placed "about two hundred fencible white men on the 
Vineyard,"^ and computing the known increase, with the adopt- 
ed multiple, we have about twelve hundred persons resident 
in the county, exclusive of negroes and native aborigines. . 
The Provincial census of 1765 gives us the first definite 
figures of enumerators, and from it the following statistics 
are extracted: 





tn 




Whites 

Under 

16 Years 


Ditto 
Above 
16 Years 


Negroes 


Indians 


Neutrals 
Under i6 


Ditto 
Above 16 


Total 






<u 


<u 




1) 




<u 




(U 




i) 






































03 


s 




2 


la 


03 

a 




s 

1) 


'a 


B 




S 




a 




Edgartown 


128 


150 


234 


209 


233 


248 


12 


8 


37 


49 










1030 


Chilmark 


90 


114 


152 


156 


159 


179 


9 


8 


72 


116 










851 


Tisbury 


no 


100 


165 


166 


226 


233 


4 


5 


15 


24 










838 


I328 


364 


551531618 


660 


25 


2l|l24 


189I 1 


1 


2719 



It will be seen that there were 2460 white persons, a doub- 
ling in twenty years and an average annual gain of about three 
hundred in the half century. It will be seen that the average 
family consisted of six persons, the multiple used in previous 
computations, and that the families exceeded the number of 
houses by sixty-six, and there w^re seven persons to a house. 
When we recall the size of the buildings erected in those days 
for dwellings, it is easy to understand that they lived in ''close 
quarters." The next enumeration by the Provincial author- 
ities in 1776, shows the following statistics: families, 482; 
persons, 2822; negroes, 59, an increase of nearly twenty- 
five per cent, in twelve years. These figures take no account 
of the population of the Indian settlements, which will be 
dealt with in a separate chapter. In the period between 1641 
and 1776, the average annual growth had been two hundred, 
while in the same time the unfortunate native element had 
been decreasing in about the same ratio. No further figures 
are available for statistical purposes until 1790, the date of 
the first census of the general government, from which time, 

'Douglass, Summary, I, 405. 



29 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

by decades, with the intervening enumerations of the state, 
we reach accurate tabulations. 

The following figures show the population of the county 
as enumerated in the decennial census of the United States 
from 1790 to the present time: 

In 1790 were 3245; in 1800, 31 18; in 1810, 3290; in 1820, 
3292; in 1830, 3517; m 1840, 3958; in 1850, 4540; in i860, 
4403; in 1870, 3787; in 1880, 4300; in 1890, 4369; in 1900, 
4561. 

The population of the county shows a gradual increase 
of 1300 for sixty years, when the number dropped about 800 
from 1850 to 1870, which may be accounted for by the losses 
and changes of residence during the war of the Rebellion. 

During the no years of the census enumerations, the 
county has increased 40%, notwithstanding the losses which 
followed the emigration into Maine in the first decade of the 
above named period, and a similar exodus into the western 
states between 1820 and 1840. Losses of this character have 
been constant ever since, but they are in part made up by 
the immigration of others who in recent years have availed 
themselves of its climatic and natural attractions to select the 
island not only as a summer home but for a permanent resi- 
dence. 




OLD CEDARS AT WEST CHOP. 

SCTRVIVORS OF THE " TALL AND STRAIGHT " CeDARS SEEN BY BrERETON IN l6o2 



30 



The Aboriginal Inhabitants 



CHAPTER II. 

The Aboriginal Inhabitants. 

At the dawn of the 17th century the island now known 
as Martha's Vineyard was simply one of the nameless, shape- 
less islands seen on the rude charts of the early explorers, 
constituting a part of that fringe of islands on the eastern 
coast of the new but unknown continent toward which the 
voyagers of all the European nations had been for a century 
turning the prows of their adventurous crafts. Could we see 
it in reproduction now we should behold it in its modern shape 
and size, for it has not been materially altered by sea action, 
except on its southeastern littoral, but differing in respect 
to the fulness and character of its foliage. Then it doubtless 
had a more luxuriant growth of evergreen trees, plentifully 
intermingled with clumps of wild fruit trees and bushes bear- 
ing native berries. The same condition existed on Noman's 
Land. 

While Brereton's description of Noman's Land gives us a 
picture of a dense jungle of trees tangled with undergrowth, 
we shall be in error if we apply this literally to the Vineyard. 
Noman's Land was then ''without house or inhabitant," while 
the Vineyard was the home of several thousand aborigines 
at that date. In the nature of things they could not travel 
nor hunt under such conditions, and we do not have to imagine 
the denizens of the island devoid of means to render the terri- 
tory they inhabited suitable for their occupation and in a con- 
dition to support life. There were large, open spaces, over- 
grown with grass and planting fields which they had cultivated 
for centuries. Wood in his New England Prospect (1634) 
speaks of the Indian custom of burning the ground each fall: 
"there is no underwood save in the swamps and low places; 
for it being the custom of the Indians to burn the woods in 
November, when the grass is withered and the leaves dried 
it consumes all the underwood and rubbish." Morton refers 
to the same thing, and we can readily believe their statements 
that on the coming of the English to this coast there were open 
fields covered with grass. It is a fair presumption that the 
Vineyard presented a general aspect of fresh verdure to the 
explorers, for its virgin soil had not been exhausted by the 

31 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

improvident whites, nor its groves of beeches, cedars, and 
firs denuded to provide tribute for hundreds of v^asteful fire- 
places, where ancestral shins were toasted and "alj outdoors" 
heated through chimney flues large enough to exhaust a brick- 
yard. 

The hills and meads of the island were clad in a rich 
covering of evergreen that is now all gone, and its place taken 
by the walnut and hickory and the endless prospect of dwarf 
oaks that now struggle for a parched existence on the great 
plains of Tisbury and Edgartown. It is difiicult for us to 
conceive of Noman's Land, which is now as innocent of any 
foliage as an infant's poll, once supporting great forests and 
a thicket of undergrowth, yet in two centuries the whites, 
without forethought or wisdom, had despoiled it of its verdure 
and rendered it an unproductive, barren isle, where for cen- 
turies the aboriginal occupants had preserved its fertility and 
the productiveness of the Vineyard, sparing the trees as a 
part of nature's household economy. On Noman's Land, 
in the swamp, may be seen the trunks and stumps of huge 
cedars, the decaying remains of a noble forest growth that 
existed two hundred years ago. 

INDIAN NAME OF THE VINEYARD. 

To the people who held it by that unwritten tenure of 
nomadic tribal authority, a people without records or civiliza- 
tion, but to whom it was a home, there belonged a name at- 
tached by them to it, which from the point of a later literary 
standard is superior to the name bestowed upon it by its English 
sponsor. The aboriginal name for the island was Noe-pe, 
a compound term consisting of the radical Noe, signifying, 
middle of, midst, amid, and the generic -pe, which in all Algon- 
quian dialects signifies "water," — and thus we have the full 
and free definition "amid the waters," a name of singular 
beauty and poetry. While this might be said to be applicable 
to any island, yet it appears to have a deeper significance. 
If the Algonquian sagamore who perhaps first gave it the 
name of Noe-pe had merely wished to call it an island," he 
would have chosen another word, Aquiden.^ But the savage 
was a child of Nature, observant of her myriad manifestations, 
and in his method of bestowing names on persons or things 

'This word, in the form of Aquiden-et or Aquidnet, is familial to us as the name 
of the city of Newport, an island. 

32 



The Aboriginal Inhabitants 

he usually selected some special attribute attaching as the 
basis for the title. So he observed in his crude way the tidal 
peculiarities of the waters as they were ceaselessly flowing 
about the sound, and noted that this island was at the meeting 
place of the currents coming from the northeast and south- 
west. This phenomenon, now well known to the residents 
here and to all those engaged in navigating our coast, results 
in a subdivision of the daily tides, by which we have four in- 
stead of two as common elsewhere along the New England 
littoral, two ebb and two flood, churning northeastward through 
the Vineyard sound and Buzzard's Bay and southwestward 
over the treacherous Nantucket shoals. "The region about 
Martha's Vineyard," says a report of the U. S. Coast Survey, 
"is the dividing space between the co-tidal hours of XII and 
XV, and in this locality the combination of two apparently 
distinct tidal waves is observed. This combination presents 
the most singular forms, giving at times four high tides in 
one day near the junction of Nantucket and Martha's Vine- 
yard sound. These tides exhibit diurnal and semi-diurnal 
elements. The semi-diurnal waves exhibit two heads at the 
locality of the greatest interference (Falmouth), one of their 
meeting points."^ 

The authority for Noepe as the true Indian name of this 
island rests upon indisputable ground, and is none other than 
the statement of the Rev. Thomas Mayhew, the apostle to 
the Vineyard Indians, who was learned in their speech and 
taught them in their own tongue. In a letter written by him 
dated Oct. 22, 1652, reciting the conversion of the Indians, 
he says: "I drew forth the same morning in the Indian Lan- 
guage, which I have here sent in England," the covenant of 
the Indians, which begins, "We, the distressed Indians of 
the Vineyard, (or Nope, the Indian name of the Island)."'^ 

The use of this curious word, pronounced in two syllables, 
No-pe, is of rare occurrence in the early records. The first 
instance is the one just cited; the second is by Daniel Gookin 
in his "Description of the New England Indians," written 
in 1674 (i Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., I, 141). The next is quoted 
by Freeman (History of Cape Cod, II, 274), from a deed 
dated Sept. 7, 1680, when John Yanno, " Indian of Gay 
Head at Nope Island," sells certain property in Barnstable. 
Another is a reference made by Josiah Cotton, at the end of 

'Report, 1855, pages 222-3; 1856, pages 261-263. 
* "Tears of Repentance, etc." (London 1653). 

33 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

his Indian Vocabulary, compiled about the year 1727 (3 Mass. 
Hist. Soc. Coll., II, 147-257), who says, in a dialogue between 
himself and a Plymouth Indian, that the Indians of the main- 
land find it difficult to understand him because he learned 
from his father (Rev. John Cotton), who had acquired his 
knowledge "at Nope," his father having been a missionary 
to the Indians at the Vineyard, 1665-8.^ 

It is true that the early writers who published descrip- 
tions of New England from the time of the first explorations. 
Smith, Winslow, Wood, Gorges, and others, call it the Isle of 
Capowack (in variations of spelling), and I am familiar with 
the authorities of that period so far as to admit that this name 
was generally used to designate the Vineyard. This name 
had the advantage of undisputed usage (up to the time which 
I shall cite hereafter), and therefore is entitled to all the priv- 
ilege which exclusive occupancy of the field may bestow. 

An examination of the Coast Survey charts and current 
maps of Martha's Vineyard will show off its eastern shore 
and closely contiguous, a curiously shaped island, with a long, 
sickle-shaped neck of land extending therefrom, now called 
the island of Chappaquiddick, while the extreme north end 
of this pointed neck is known as Cape Poge. The evolution 
of the name Cape Poge is easy of demonstration. The name 
was originally, as I believe, Capoag or Capoak, and by giving 
each vowel its syllabic value in pronunciation, we have Ca- 
po-ag, or Ca-po-ak, which was, probably, an Indian name 
of a definite locality; and the early voyagers, hearing this 
pronounced and noting the phonetic resemblance of the first 
syllable to our geographical word "cape," immediately applied 
it to that portion of the island answering the physical features 
of a cape, and the map-makers accordingly registered their 
decrees. In the DeLaets map of 1630, show^ing the Vineyard, 
we see the legend "C. Ack," or Cape Ack, and in the Novi 
Belgii map of 1671, it is repeated with* a slight change, "C. 
Wack als Ack," that is Cape Wack or Ack, appearing in both 
instances at the eastern side of the island, where Cape Poge is 
known at the present day. In the DesBarres chart of 1781 it 
is Capoag (one word), and by pronouncing it in two syllables 
we have Ca-pog, which is the general local pronunciation 
to-day. It is, however, spelled Cape Poge or Pogue. 

Un a deed dated June, 1681, Matthew Mayhew is called "Sachem of all Nop." 
(Dukes Deeds, VIII, 67). Kendall writing in 1814 while on a visit to the island says 
it was called "by the Indians Nope and Capawac." (Travels, II, 183). 

34 



The Aboriginal Inhabitants 

From all evidence now obtainable the tip end of Chappa- 
quiddick was a separate island two hundred years ago, and 
was then called the island of Natuck or Capoag, as shown 
by the following deeds: 

I. 388. Pahkepunnasso, sachem of Chappaquiddick, sold the island 
called Natuck to Thomas Mayhew, 16 (6) 1663. 

IV. 158. Micajah Mayhew leased "the island of Natick alias Capoag 
near unto Chappaquiddick," 4 March, 1727. 

IV. 328. Micajah Mayhew leased the "Isle of Capoag .... which 
lieth a Uttle to the Easter Northard of the Isle of Chapaquidet" 27 Feb- 
ruary, 1729. 

This last seems entirely conclusive of the fact that a little 
island bore the name of Capoag or Capawack from time im- 
memorial, but in further evidence of the general proposition 
that Capowack is not the correct Indian name of Martha's 
Vineyard I submit the following facts: 

I. Neither the town records of Edgartown, from 1642 
to 1670, which are, in fact, the earliest muniments of title 
on the Vineyard; the court records of the county of Dukes 
County, from the earliest entry in 1673 to 1700, nor the town 
records of Tisbury, from 1671 to 1700, all of which I have 
examined personally, and from which I have full abstracts 
for the periods cited, disclose the use of the name Capowack 
as a place name for the island as a whole. This is of course 
negative testimony, but it may pass as such for cumulative 
or circumstantial evidence. 

II. In the court records of the county of Dukes County, 
under date of Oct, 13, 1675, an order relative to trading 
with the Indians is entered, and as a part of the plan for pro- 
hibiting non-residents from bartering surreptitiously with 
them, it was provided "That no man presume to land any 
goods anywhere at Marthas Vineyard, Capepowak, Nomans 
Land, or Elizabeth Isles, unless at the places appointed." 
This topographical list includes the whole of the county as 
then and now constituted, and serves to show that ''Cape- 
powak" was by the inhabitants considered as distinct and 
separate a place from Martha's Vineyard as Noman's Land 
or the Elizabeth Isles. 

III. When the New England charter of 1692 was issued 
it disclosed the fact that unbeknown to the people of the Vine- 
yard, and to the government of New York, under which it 
had been since 1671, the island was placed under the govern- 

35 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

ment of the Massachusetts Bay. In the acts of the General 
Court of that year, providing for the control of, and the civil 
authority on the Vineyard, it was called "Martha's Vineyard 
alias Capowack." This official designation aroused the in- 
habitants to protest against the further use of this title for 
the island, and in obedience to this sentiment, and acting 
on his instructions as representative of the towns of Edgar- 
town and Chilmark to the General Court, at the next session 
after the passage of these acts, Mr. Benjamin Smith addressed 
the Governor and Representatives in this language: — 

I am to shew that it seemeth grevious to us that wee seem to be 
named in divers acts of the assembly here by a name in no waies acknowl- 
edged by us 

I am to shew to your honours that if an act be made that whereas 
in the divers acts mentioning Martha's Vineyard Alias Capowick, If it 
be inserted Martha's Vineyard and Capowick, it will be more satisfactory 
to our people. (Mass. Arch, cxii., 453.) 

This evidence seems to me to establish conclusively that 
however much others, through ignorance or inadvertence, 
had given credence to the original use of the title Capowack 
as representing the Vineyard in its entirety, yet the inhab- 
itants, who were peculiarly familiar with the Indian language 
and had been brought into long and intimate relations with 
the natives through their missions, disavowed the name as 
applicable to the whole island. 

It is a difficult matter to dislodge a fixed belief, even if 
it be erroneous, but it is hoped that this will find its quietus 
now that the means of correction have been found. 

THE POKANAUKET INDIANS. 

The race of men who peopled the Vineyard at the be- 
ginning of the 1 7th century were members of that almost- van- 
ished aboriginal family known to ethnologists as the Algon- 
quian Indians. 

This great family with its numerous tribal divisions ranged 
the entire eastern half of North America, from the frozen 
waters of Hudson Bay in the north, to the tepid savannahs 
of the south, and from the promontories of Nova Scotia in 
the east to the snow-clad peaks of the Rocky mountains in 
the west. It is the race known to us in song and story. They 
were the Indians of Sprague and Cooper, of Longfellow and 
Catlin. Of members of this great family in the northeastern 

36 



The Aboriginal Inhabitants 

portion of our country those most familiar to us are the Mic- 
macs of Nova Scotia, the Abnakis of Maine, the Massachu- 
setts of our own Commonwealth, and the Narragansetts of 
Rhode Island. Of the last-named tribe, whose great chief- 
tain, Metacomet, long held the white invaders at bay, were 
the Pokanaukets, a sub-division residing to the eastward of 
Narragansett Bay, and probably dwelling on the shores of 
Buzzard's Bay. 

Daniel Gookin in his description of the New England 
Indians, written in 1675, makes the following statement: 

The Pawkunnawkutts were a great people heretofore. They lived 
to the east and northeast of the Narragansetts, and their chief sachem 
held dominion over divers other petty sagamores, as the sagamores upon 
the island of Nantucket, and Nope or Martha's Vineyard.^ 

This authority on the Indians of New England is cor- 
roborated by an example of this control which is to be found 
entered in our land records under date of March, 1661, when 
Womsettan, "chief sachem of Cossomsett" sold to William 
Brenton of Newport "all my right on Nope, alias Martha's 
Vineyard," and the next year personal delivery was made 
by Womsettan by turf and twig of this property, of which 
he reserved one-twelfth to himself.^ The Vineyard Indians 
were members of this tribe, and until Christianized, owned 
fealty to King Philip of Pokanauket during his life-time.' 

TRIBAL GOVERNMENT. 

There does not appear to have been any single chieftain 
on the island to whom the subordinate sachems yielded pre- 
cedence, and it is probable that these local head men were 
directly responsible to the great chief of the Narragansetts. 

As these people were without written records, it is not 
possible to accurately define the relations which did exist, 
but from the fragmentary allusions in the early writings of 
the English historians and observers, the island was divided 
into four parts, each presided over by a sagamore, as will 
be more particularly explained. As to their form or method 
of government, if it may be so termed, we have the detailed 

'i Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., I, 141-227. 

*Dukes County Deeds, III, 12, 13. Wamsutta or Wamsettan was an elder brother 
of Philip or Metacomet, and son of Massasoit, the great chief of the Wampanoags. 
He resided in the region between Buzzards and Narragansett bays. 

^Plym. Col. Rec, IV, 164. 

37 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

explanation furnished by our first local author, Matthew May- 
hew, and it will be better placed before the reader in his own 
words, and is therefore reprinted here verbatim:^ 

Their Government was purely Monarchical: and as for such whose 
dominions extended further than would well admit one Princes personal 
guidance, it was committed into the hands of Lieutenants, who Governed 
with no less absoluteness, than the Prince himself: notwithstanding, in 
matters of difficulty, the Prince Consulted with his Nobles, and such whom 
he esteemed for wisdom; in which it was admirable to see the Majestick 
deportment of the Prince, his speech to his Council, with the most delib- 
erate discussion of any matter proposed for their advice; after which, 
what was by him resolved, without the least hesitation was applauded, 
and with at least a seeming Alacrity attended. 

The Crown (if I may so term it) alwayes descended to the Eldest 
Son (though subject to usurpation), not to the Female, unless in defect 
of a Male of the Blood; the Blood Royal, being in such Veneration among 
the People, that if a Prince had issue by divers Wives, such Succeeded 
as Heirs who was Royally descended by the Mother, although the Young- 
est, esteeming his issue by a Venter of less Quality than a Princess, not 
otherwise than Sachems or Noblemen. 

Their Nobles were either such who descended from the Blood Royal, 
or such on whom the Prince bestowed part of his Dominions with the 
Royalties, or such whose descent was from Ancestors who had time out 
of mind been so Esteemed as such. 

Their Yeomen were such who having no stamp of Gentility were yet 
esteemed as having a natural right of living within their Princes Do- 
minions, and a common use of the Land; and were distinguished by two 
names or Titles, the one signifying Subjection, the other Titles of the Land. 

Although the People retained nothing of Record nor use of Letters, 
yet there lived among them many Families, who, although the time of their 
Forefathers first inhabiting among them was beyond the Memory of man, 
yet were known to be Strangers or Foreigners, who were not Privileged 
with Common Rights, but in some measure Subject to the Yeomanry, 
but were not dignified, in attending the Prince, in Hunting or like Ex- 
ercise; unless called by particular favor. 

The Princes, as they had not other Revenue than the Presents of their 
subjects (which yet was counted Due debt), Wrecks of the sea, the Skins 
of Beasts killed in their Dominions, and many like things, as First Fruits, 
&c, so they wanted none; for in case of War, both People and Estate 
was wholly at their dispose; therefore none demanded nor expected Pay. 
In respect to their Court, it was doubtless maintained in great Magnifi- 
cance in distinction from the Subject which is the utmost can be obtained 
by the greatest monarch; their Families and attendants being well Cloathed 
with Skins of Moos, Bear, Deer, Beaver, and the like; the Provisions for 
their Table, as Flesh, Fish, Roots, Fruits, Berries, Corn, Beanes, in great 
abundance and variety was alwayes brought by their Neighboring sub- 
jects; of all which they were as void of Care as the most Potent Princes 
in this Universe. 

'Mayhew: "Triumphs and Conquests of Grace," pages 13-17. 
38 



The Aboriginal inhabitants 



As the Prince was acknowledged Absolute Lord of the Land, so he 
had no less Sovereignty at Sea; for as all belonged to him, which wa& 
stranded on the shore of his Sea Coast, so whatever Whales or other wreck 
of value, or floating on the sea, taken up on the seas washing his shores, 
or brought and Landed, from any part of the Sea, was no less his own. 



THE FOUR SACHEMSHIPS. 

The Vineyard was apparently divided into four govern- 
mental sections, of which two, Chappaquiddick and Gay Head, 
were separated by natural boundaries from the main island. 
This latter territory being divided into two chief sachemships, 
which had a definite line of demarcation, represented as accu- 
rate a partition as could be devised. By a straight line drawn 
from the Blackwater brook emptying into the sound, to Watchet, 
the sachemships of Nunnepog and Takemmy were divided by 
the "old Sachems and Cheefe men of Nunpoag on the one 
side, and the old Sachchims and Cheefe men of Takymmy 
on the other side." The particulars of this division deserve 
quotation in full: 

"that is at the black water or wechpoquasit being the pond and 
Run of water into the sound and said bounds to Run southwardly as the 
said Run of water cometh from the spring called ponk quatesse and from 
said spring of water to the middle of watchet on the south side of this 
Hand so that all the Est side of said bounds to belong to Nunpoak and 
on the west side of said bounds unto Takymmy, which bounds was 
setteled many years ago." ' 

At the coming of the whites then there were four chief 
sagamores or sachems in authority, ruling over Chappaquid- 
dick, Nunnepaug, Takemmy, and Aquiniuh (Gay Head). 
The sagamores of these four places were at this period Pah- 
kepunnassoo, Tewanticut, Mankutoukquet, and Nohtook- 
saet respectively. These four greater chiefs or sagamores 
subdivided their territory into petty sachemships, who ruled 
within certain well-defined limits: for example; Cheesehahcha- 
muk was the sachem of Homes' Hole,^ and when his son Ponit 
succeeded to his father's authority, the bounds of his sachem- 
ship were declared "to have bin set by towonticut by a fut 
path which gose from Weakuttockquayah unto cuttashimmoo 
on the other side of the neck."^ This means a line drawn 

'Tisbury Records, p. 43. 
'Dukes Deeds, I, 355. 
^Court Records, 1685. 

39 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

from the head of the lagoon to the head of Tashmoo pond. 
It appears that Cheesehahchamuk had sold land in the Chick- 
emmoo district as early as 1658. ^ Wampamag was the sachem 
of Sanchacankacket in 1660 and he exercised authority over 
that neck, from the pond north to the Chop.^ These sachem- 
ships were held by inheritance; usually from the father, but 
occasionally through the mother, if she had acquired the title 
by descent. Wampamag was the son of Adommas/' queen 
sachem," as she was called. 

These sachems were not always natives of the Vineyard, 
but in what manner they acquired their rank and entered 
into the enjoyment of their prerogatives is not known,— prob- 
ably by selection of the mainland chiefs. Nohtooksaet, the 
sachem of Gay Head, ''came from the Massachusetts Bay."^ 
and Wannamanhut, the sachem of Manitou-Watootan (Christ- 
iantown) ''came in his younger time from towards Boston 
to Martha's Vineyard, and settled att Takeemmee." * 

Concerning this particular importation from the main- 
land, it is of record that "at a great meeting of Indians at Tis- 
bury" the sagamore "with the rest of the sachems agreed 
that Wonamonhoot should have all the land to the westward 
of a place called Nippessieh to be at his own disposal." ^ 

In another case involving the title to a sachemship in 
1675, Mittark, the then ruling sachem, as son of Nohtooksaet, 
was challenged in his rights by "the person called Omphan- 
nut," who claimed he was the eldest son of the deceased sa- 
chem. A council was held, composed of the chief men of the 
island, and "as far as the mane land" and they decided that 
*'Omphannut speak true." Thereupon they assigned to 
the latter one-quarter of all the land on Gay Head.^ Tooh- 
toowee was the sachem on the north shore of Chilmark in the 
Keephigon region, in 1673." The sons and daughters of 
all these petty magnates in succeeding years exercised authority 
over the tribes, and sold land within their territory as late 
as the middle of the i8th century. 

The prominent Indian of Edgartown known by his Eng- 
lish name of "Tom Tyler" came to the island before 1673, 

'Deeds, I, 182, 355. 

*Deeds, II, 253. 

'Indian converts, 67. 

*Sup. Jud. Court files. No. 10, 774, 

*Deeds, II, 142. 

«Deeds, VI, 369. 

'Deeds, III, 201, 

40 



The Aboriginal Inhabitants 

and lived here many years and probably ended his days at 
Sanchacantacket, where Tyler's Field remains as a memory 
of his habitation. He was of "royal" blood, but it does not 
appear that he acquired any particular distinction here among 
them as a '* prince" or sagamore. He was the "sonne of 
Sagamore of Agawamm (Ipswich), a known man in the coun- 
trey; he that sold the Town of Ipswich," whose name was 
Masconomet.^ 

APPEARANCE, MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE INDIANS. 

Brereton thus describes the personal appearance of the 
savages as seen by him on the Vineyard and the surrounding 
islands: — "These people as they are exceeding courteous, 
gentle of disposition, and well conditioned, excelling all others 
that we have seene ; so for shape of bodie and lovely favour I 
thinke they excell all the people of America; of stature much 
higher than we ; of complexion or colour much like a dark 
Olive ; their eie-browes and haire blacke, which weare long tied 
up behinde in knott, whereon they pricke feathers of fowles, 
in fashion of a crownet : some of them are blacke thin bearded ; 
they make beards of the haire of beasts; and one of them 
offered a beard of their making to one of our sailers, for his 
that grew on his face, which because it was of a red colour, 
they judged to be none of his owne." But few of the women 
came under the observation of Brereton, and none of their 
children, if we may thus interpret his silence about them. Of 
the former he says: "Their women (such as we saw) which 
were but three in all, were but lowe of stature, their eie-browes, 
haire, apparell, and manner of wearing, like to the men, fat, 
and very well favoured, and much delighted in our compane; 
the men very dutifull towards them." 

Of the manners and customs of the Indians, much that 
is interesting and authentic has come down to us from the 
writings of the early explorers, to show their characteristics 
and habits before the white settlers disturbed their life and 
robbed it of its picturesque features. It is stated that the 
Indians of the Vineyard lived "in several villages," and again 
"in severall Townes."^ Properly interpreted, this means 
that there was a village for each sachemship, and possibly 
smaller settlements at convenient points. The principal 

'Essex Deeds, VIII, io6. 

*Glorious Progress, 1647; comp. Records Com. United Col., II, 242. 

41 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

village in Nunnepog was on the shores of the Great Herring 
pond, near Mashacket, which name, as will be hereafter shown, 
has a special significance. In Takemmy, the settlement 
was on the Great Tisbury pond, while Chappaquiddick and 
Kuhtuhquetuet (Gay Head) each had its village. It is prob- 
able that smaller communities made abiding-places within 
the limits of the territorial authority of each petty sachem. 
In this way, I believe, we may infer that Wekwetuckauke 
(the lagoon), Sanchacantacket, Onkokemmaug (North Tis- 
bury), and Nashowakemmuck (Chilmark) were the locations 
of such subordinate villages. Of the character of these settle- 
ments it can be said that they had no permanency. Com- 
posed as they were of loosely constructed wigwams, they 
were easily transported from place to place, as the require- 
ments of the season demanded. In the summer they were 
doubtless picketed about the inlets of the coast, while in winter 
they wTre removed to the protection of the woods and hills 
from the icy blasts of the north. The circumscribed terri- 
tory, however, prevented extended migration, and within 
a small compass the various companies owning fealty to the 
local great men, moved from place to place, when the 
refuse heaps became too large or the game grew too wary. 
Their dwellings were known as wigwams, a corruption 
of the Algonquian word "wekuwomut," meaning, in our lan- 
guage, a house.* The younger Mayhew described these 
structures as "made with small poles like an arbor covered 
with mats, and their j&re is in the midst, over which they leave 
a place for the smoak to go out at." ^ This was in 1650, and 
probably is a correct description of them as they were used be- 
fore the coming of the whites. The island Indians did not use 
skins for a covering like those on the mainland, as there were 
not any animals numerous enough to supply them for that 
purpose. The mats were woven from the common marsh 
flag, or flower-de-luce, and probably long, native grasses 
were added for binding.^ The name of Scrubby Neck, or 
a portion of it, in Algonquian, was Uppeanash-Konameset, 
meaning the "covering mat place," where the cat-tail flags 
grew in profusion, and were woven into coverings for their 
wigwams. 

'Trumbull, English-Natick dictionary, 279. It is written ii'eetuomet at times (El- 
iot, Bible, Isaiah: 40; 22), of which wetu is probably the third person singular indic- 
ative of a verb that means approximately " he makes his home." 

'Light appearing, etc. (London, 1651), page 5. 

^In a deed " mapsho grass that is suitable for matts" is mentioned (Dukes Deeds, 
IV, 45)- 

42 



The Aboriginal Inhabitants 

LANGUAGE OF THE VINEYARD INDIANS. 

The language spoken by our Indians was a dialect of the 
great Algonquian tongue, and was the language of the Indians 
of Massachusetts, with slight differences, as testified to by 
all early students, but it is probable that those variations were 
largely due to the interpreters themselves. Experience May- 
hew, perhaps the greatest philologist in this language after 
Eliot, has left a brief statement of the Vineyard dialect, which 
is here quoted as the only authoritative one we have on the 
subject : 

The Martha's Vineyard Indian Dialect and that of Natick 

according to which Mr. Ehot translated the Indian Bible, are so very much 
alike that without a very Critical observation you would not see the dif- 
ference Indeed, the difference was something greater than it now 

is, before our Indians had the use of the Bible and other Books translated 
by Mr. Eliot, but since that most of the Little differences that were be- 
twixt them have been happily Lost and our Indians Speak but especially 
write much as those of Natick do ' 

My Grand Father in his time composed a large and Excellent Cate- 
chism for the Indians of this Island, agreeable unto their own Dialect; but 
not being printed, the original is, I think, utterly lost, and there only re- 
mains of it about forty pages in octavo, transcribed as I suppose by some 
Indian after his death 

I learnt the Indian Language by Rote as I did my Mother Tongue, 
and not by Studying the Rules of it as the Lattin Tongue is commonly 
learned, besides, as you know, I am no Gramarian I shall then ob- 
serve: 

1. That all the articulate sounds used by the Indians in these Parts 
may be spelt with several Letters fewer than are used by the English; for 
I know of no word in the proper dialect of the Indians of the island but 
what may be very well written without any of these Consonants, viz; b. 
d. f. g. 1. r. X. Indeed, some of them are frequently to be seen in our 
Indian books, but in words that are purely Indian, I think unnecessarily; 
in words derived from the English they are frequently needed. 

2. That the Indian Vowels are the same with the English, save 
that the y. is never used with them as a vowel, and that o. is frequently 
pronounced through the Nose, much as one would pronounce it with the 
mouth close shut. 

3. That Dipthongs or Duble sounds are of very frequent use with 
the Indian Language, as ae, au, ei, ee, eu, eau, oi, 00. Especially "00" 
dipthong is of most frequent use, there being often two of them together 
in the same word. 

'When Judge Sewall \'isitefi the island in 1702, he was told by Mayhew and 
the Indian preacher Japhet that "tis hardly feesible to send any [ministers from the 
Vineyard] to the Eastward to convert the Indians, their Language is so different." 
(Diary, III, 397). 

43 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

4. That Some Indian words have so many consonants sounded in 
one and the same sillible as render the word somewhat difficult to pronounce. 

5. That In the Indian Language there are so few if any proper 
partciples that it is unnecessary to Reckon the Partciple as one Part of 
their Language 

6. That the Indian Pronoun is not dechned or varied except where 
it is used in composition with other words or parts of speech 

7. That the variation of Nouns is not by Genders or Cases, as in 
some other Languages, but in other accounts as the Numbers singular 
and Plural; Their Nature, whether Animate or inanimate; Their Magni- 
tude, Great or small; Their being in present existence, or being past and 
gon 

8. That the Noun Adjective or adnown, is declined as well as the 
nown substantive to which it relateth 

9. Respecting Verbs, several things may be observed; (i) there is 

no compleat and intire word for the verb substantive, as am, art, is, etc 

(2) Other verbs there be both active and passive (3) The most Indian 

verbs are personal, yet there are some impersonals (4) Indian verbs 

have both modes and tenses belonging to them (5) Verbes in Indian 

are both positive and negative Generally, concerning Indian verbs, 

I may say; That in the various conjugations or different formation of them, 
a very great part of the Indian Language does consist 

10. Indian Adverbs are words attending on their verbs, and shew 
the Quallity of the actions signified by them, also their character, extention, 
duration, cessation, etc., such as in English end in -ly, comonly in Indian 
end in -e. 

11. I may further observe that Indian words, especially the names 
of persons and things, are generally very significant, by far more so than 
those of the EngHsh, as the Hebrew also are; For with them, the way 
used was to call every place. Person, and thing by a name taken from 
some thing remarkable in it or attending of it. Thus the place where I 
dwell is in Indian called Nempanicklickanuk, in English, The place of 
Thunderclefts, because there was once a Tree there split in pieces by 
the Thunnder 

12. I shall observe to you that the Indian Language delighteth great- 
ly in compounding of words; in which way they frequently make one 
word out of several, and then one such word will comprehend what in 
Enghsh is four, five, or six; but as by this means they often have much 
in a little room, so it is also true that this sometimes makes their words 

very long, the rules of their Language calling for it I will give you 

an Instance of one: Nup-pahk-top-pe-pe-nau-wut-chut-chuh-quo-ka-neh- 
cha-nehcha-e-nin-na-mun-nonok. Here are fifty-eight letters and twen- 
ty two syllables, if I do not miss count them. The English of this very 
long word is: Our well skilled Looking glass makers 

I shall at present ad no more concerning the Indian Language, save 
in general that I think it good and regular. That it may seem otherwise 
to some is, as I judge, because ther is not yet a good Gramer made for it, 
nor are the Rules of it fully understood Nor are the Indians yet 

44 



The Aboriginal Inhabitants 



so much beholden to other Nations, for words borrowed of them as the 
English are, or otherwise would be much poorer than now they be.' 

In order that those interested in a further investigation 
of the language may have a concrete example of it as it looks 
when written out, the following document, taken from the 
land records, dated 1669, is here reproduced for diligent exam- 
ination and study. There are many such deeds recorded in 
the original Algonquian, mostly by the Rev. Experience May- 
hew, and they must remain a valuable contemporary evi- 
dence of the language of our island Indians as translated 
into English symbols by the diligent and painstaking mission- 
aries. 

Dukes Deeds, vi. 412. 

Wachtook wame Kenao woskatomppaog Tayu ohguompbi Nen In- 
diane Sachim Wompbamaog yug uessooog muttumsisog mache Chup- 
bohtoogahkuh Taogkashkupbeh Neatkittammuk guanaimmuh Wutche 
Nen Wompbamag Noowekont ammooomk Nohmaktamckit aspoowesit 
Ales Setum wutchubpaoom ne ankuhque Rishkag Nessinnehehak Wonn 
napanna Radtoo Noh Nohtoe Ussoowegoo Keziah Setum neankuhque 
kishkug Wuttisham piog Nupomppunna Rudtoo Neankuhque kishkag 
nessee Tannkkanmoouk Neunnukkuhque kishkaiEnsompe quehpee hum- 
miyu Pache Deagit 00 bonus Watiskin Nen Wompamog Nissingu Minnuh- 
ki wussombpohtaunnau newutche mache Nutohup bmuummauonnooyu 
Tahshin ahkuhen Ales Setum Wona Keziah Setum (Wuttonnessuh Thomas 
Setum) wuttinnau nissinwona wame Uppemeteuukkunooout mikene 
asah Wattauwatuonkkanoout Wounnahtoae ahtauhiitich Michime ^u 
Tahsin ahsk Newutche mattape Nupbappennoowehtoooun asahowan 
kannootammanshittogknoussontummoonk matpe wuttiss wnnau See- 
wunaahteaonk kune ahtauhuttit yu Tahehin ahkuh Ales Setum Keziah 
Setum Wona wame Ummeehummonk yo ahk March 14 Daye 1669. 

Nen Wompammag Indian Sontum Numminnehkehtaum yu deede 

(Seal) 
Nen bonid Wauwaenin. 00 X mark 

noo X mark. 
Onen Isack Omppanne Wannaenin. 

noo X mark. 

When he wished to express himself, however, in English, 
the native was not so verbose, as witness the following deed, 
written directly to the point: — 

' Extracts from a letter of Experience Mayhew to Judge Paul Dudley, dated 
Chilmark, March the 20th, 1721-2. 

"Josiah Cotton, in his vocabulary, compiled about 1727, says that he 'had some 
of his father's (Rev. John Cotton's) words, and he learned Indian at Nope, and these 
Indians (Plymouth) don't understand every word of them Indians.' " 

45 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

Dukes Deeds, I, i8. 

Awannamuck and Kesuckquish of Unnunpauque we have bargained: 
I give him my land at Pahaukanit from the pointward to the headward, 
twenty-two rodde and half in length, and all toward the shore hee hath. 
I, Awannamuck, say so. 

This is my hand. n. — WiUinesses, 

Awannamuck hath five shillings. — Wampamuck S. 

I, Kesuckquish, say it. — Pattuckquittaalick G. 

Manittocket O. 

Indeed, Brereton found them in 1602 speaking some 
English, if we may credit his roseate view of all the things 
he saw. He said: 

They pronounce our language with great facilitie; for one of them 
one day sitting by me, upon occasion I spake smiling these words: "How 
now (sirha) are you so fancie with my Tobacco; which words (without any 
further repetition) he suddenly spake so plaine and distinctly, as if he had 
beene a long scholar in the language.' 



THEIR MYTHS AND TRADITIONS. 

Like all primitive races, the savages of North America 
had their myths and traditions, as respected their origin, the 
development of their surroundings, and the supernatural being 
who ruled all things for good or evil. Each division of these 
aboriginal peoples treasured the stories of the wonderful do- 
ings of this mighty spirit, to which a local coloring was given 
to invest the tales with human interest. These traditions 
had one common origin, and are closely correlated to the 
folk-lore of other races in distant lands and of widely sepa- 
rated stock. In the Amerindian lore, the all-powerful being 
who presided over their destinies was called Mich-a-bo, the 
Great White Hare, and from the remotest wilds of the north- 
west to the Atlantic, and from the southern savannahs of 
Georgia to the cheerless shores of Hudson's Bay, the Algon- 
quians were never tired of circling around the winter fire in 
their wigwams and hearing the story of Michabo, whom all the 
tribes, with great unanimity, regarded as their common an- 
cestor. He was recognized by them as the maker of all things 
on the earth, and had his abode in the heavens. He was 
the founder of the medicine hunt, in which, after appropriate 
ceremonies, the Indian sleeps and Michabo appears to him 
in his dreams and tells him how and where to find his game. 

'" True Relation," II. 
46 



The Aboriginal Inhabitants 

He devised all their implements, nets, weapons, and charms, 
and handed them down to his children for use in peace and 
war. In the autumn, the "moon of the falling leaf," he filled 
his great pipe and enjoyed a mighty smoke, ere he composed 
himself for the winter, and the clouds of balmy odor float 
over the hills and dales, filling the air with the haze of the 
Indian summer. Michabo was, in short, their omniscient, 
omnipotent one, who ruled the destinies of their world, and 
who entered into the smallest concerns of their daily lives. 
"Indeed," says the old missionary Breboeuf, in a tone of dis- 
gust with such puerilities, "without his aid, they think 
they could not boil a pot." 

"It is passing strange," says Brinton, in his Myths of 
the New World "that such an insignificant creature as the 
rabbit should have received this apotheosis." In its various 
forms we may see the analogue of the "Bre'r Rabbit" stories 
of the negroes, which are constructed upon the same founda- 
tion. It is not a simple animal worship, although the name 
Michabo, in all its different local forms, lends emphasis to that 
hypothesis, as it is a compound word, which has been translated 
by the Indians themselves as meaning "great," and "hare" 
or "rabbit." Brinton, however, shows that these words had 
a deeper significance, an esthetic sense, which admits of a 
different interpretation, and "discloses at once the origin 
and the secret meaning of the whole story of Michabo, in the 
light of which it appears no longer the incoherent fable of sava- 
ges, but the true myth, instinct with nature, pregnant with 
matter nowise inferior to those which fascinate in the chants 
of Rig Veda, or the weird pages of Edda." 

The word "michi" (mashi, machi, etc.) signifies "great," 
and "abos" a hare, while the initial syllable of this last word, 
meaning "white," from which is derived their words for the 
east, the dawn, the light, and the morning. "Beyond a doubt" 
says Brinton, "this is the compound in the name Michabo, 
which therefore means the Great Light, the Spirit of Light, 
of the dawn or the east, and in the literal sense of the word, 
the Great White One, as indeed he has sometimes been called." 
Max Muller says that "the whole theogony and philosophy 
of the ancient world centred in the dawn, the mother of the 
bright gods, of the sun in his various aspects, of the morn, 
the day, the spring, herself the brilliant image and visage of 
immortality." In effect, the folk lore of the Algonquians, of 
which the Martha's Vineyard tribe had their share, was but 

47 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

the crude form of a divine worship veiled under a local garb 
of fanciful coloring. In the few myths which have come 
down to us from the tribe which inhabited this island, we 
shall see the story of Michabo credited to Maushope (pro- 
nounced in three syllables), and his wonderful works here 
are but variants of the same tales told by other tribes on the 
Great Lakes, the shores of Nova Scotia, and the swamps of 
the Carolinas. 

The following legend relates to the beginnings of the 
aboriginal life upon the Vineyard: — 

"The first Indian who came to the Vineyard was brought 
thither with his dog on a cake of ice/ When he came to 
Gay Head he found a very large man, whose name was Mo- 
shup. He had a wife and five children, four sons and one 
daughter, and lived in the den. He used to catch whales, 
and then pluck up trees, and make a fire and roast them. 
The coals of the trees and the bones of the whales are now to 
be seen. After he was tired of staying here, he told his chil- 
dren to go and play ball on the beach that joined Nomans 
Land to Gay Head. He then made a mark with his toe 
across the beach, at each end, and so deep that the water 
followed and cut away the beach; so that his children were 
in fear of drowning. They took their sister up and held her 
out of the water. He told them to act as if they were going 
to kill whales, and they were all turned into killers (a fish 
so-called). The sister was dressed in large stripes; he gave 
them a strict charge always to be kind to her. His wife 
mourned the loss of her children so exceedingly that he threw 
her away. She fell upon Seconnett, near the rocks, where 
she lived some time, exacting contribution of all who passed 
by water. After awhile she was changed into a stone. The 
entire shape remained for many years, but after the English 
came some of them broke off the head, arms, &c, but the 
most of the body remains unto this day. Moshup went away 
nobody knows whither. He had no conversation with the 
Indians, but was kind to them, by sending whales &c ashore 
to them to eat. But after they grew thick around him he 
left them."=^ 

'This is common to many legends of. the origin of different tribes. As an exam- 
ple of its widespread character, the Sarcee Indians of Alberta, Canada, have the 
same story of the first of their people floating from the north on a cake of ice. — Journal 
oj American Folk Lore, 1904, page 180.) 

* I Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., I, 139. 

48 



The Aboriginal Inhabitants 

This tale was told over a hundred years ago to Benjamin 
Bassett, of Chilmark, by Thomas Cooper of Gay Head, who 
was born about 1725, and who learned it from his grandmother 
who, to use his own expression, "was a stout girl when the Eng- 
lish came to the island." This legend is a fragmentary out- 
line of the national myth of the Algonquians, Moshup being 
an obvious dialectic or Anglicized corruption of Michabo, 
while the deeds of this great being partake of local coloring, 
as was the character of all their tales about his wonderful 
powers. The four sons are the four cardinal points, and the 
daughter the Light of the Dawn, her "stripes" representing 
the rays of the sun. Among other tribes this legend would 
vary with their surroundings; at the Great Lakes, those bod- 
ies of water were his beaver dams; cataracts were torn up 
by his hands, and large depressions on the surface of the earth 
were his footsteps, which were eight leagues in length; and 
such like stories, told by the powwaws to their listeners made 
up the miracles of Michabo, the Great White One. 

Another tale which has come down to us from the Vine- 
yard Indians is as follows: "One day he decided to go to 
Cuttyhunk, which was but a few strides for one so famous 
as he, but he did not wish to get his feet wet, and taking some 
stones in his apron he began laying the foundations of a bridge. 
While engaged in this absorbing occupation a monster crab 
bit his toe and firmly held that member in its great claw, 
which caused Michabo to roar with pain, and in his anger 
he threw his load in every direction in his efforts to release 
himself. The rocks thus scattered mark the place now called 
the "Devil's Bridge," a fateful spot for mariners.^ On an- 
other occasion an offering w^as made to him by his subjects 
of Nope, of all the tobacco on the island, and filling his great 
hopuonk or pipe, he sat down in front of his "den" and en- 
joyed this huge smoke. After taking his fill of this diversion, 
he turned over the bowl and knocked the ashes from it, and 
as they were carried by the wind to the eastward, they fell 
in a heap and formed the island of Nantucket, which was 
known as the Devil's Ash Heap by the natives."^ 

'"The natives of the Elizabeth Island say that the Devell was making a stone 
bridge over from the main to Nanamesit Island, and while he was rowling the stones 
and placing them under water, a crab catched him by the fingers, with which he 
snatched up his hand and flung it towards Nantucket, and the crabs breed there ever 
since." ("Memoranda of Naushon," by Wait Winthrop, 1702.) 

^Mrs. Mary A. Cleggett Vanderhoop, of Gay Head, prepared a very interesting 
series of popular articles on the "History and Traditions of the Gay Head Indians" 
for the New Bedford Standard, which were published in the summer of 1904, and the 

49 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

As there was a benevolent god which the Indians cred- 
ited with all their good fortune, so there was an evil spirit 
who brought them sickness and mischance. This was Chepy 
or Cheeby, sometimes called Abbamocko.^ This god was 
a universally accepted personage in the Algonquian mythol- 
ogy, and part of his performances relate to the Vineyard, 
where he vented some of his anger upon the terrified natives 
of Nope. Another of their bad deities was one called Squan- 
tum, ''but worship him they do not," says an early traveler 
among the tribes of New England.^ This name is a con- 
tracted form of "musquantum," meaning "he is angry," 
and when accidents befell them, the terrified natives would 
say with bated breath, "musquantum manit!" The local 
legend is to the effect that Squantum lived with Moshup as 
his wife, and that her eyes were square, and to hide this hideous 
deformity, she wore her hair over her face. Twelve children 
were born to them, all daughters, and they lived an ideal home 
life in the "Den" on Aquinniuh, the Indian name for Gay 
Head. Her life was so subordinated to this domestic situa- 
tion that we do not hear much of her miraculous deeds except 
in the manner of her "taking off." Traditions differ as to 
this event, some saying she jumped from the highest of the 
chr.omatic cliffs of the western end of Nope, and passed for- 
ever out of sight into the blue waters of the Atlantic, while 
a more romantic version is to the effect that, led by Moshup 
along the glistening sands of the beaches of Gay Head and 
Squipnocket, the twain disappeared in one of the huge hum- 
mocks near "Zac's Cliff's." Imaginative children of Algon- 
quian ancestry were kept within leash by whispered references 
to the mysterious reappearances of Squantum in this region, 
where she came out to smoke or to bathe, and any unusual 
sounds at nightfall were attributed to "Old Squant'," who 
was said to be warning mariners against shipwreck. This 
form of legend does not fit the accepted type of lore about 
the Squantum of the Indians elsewhere, but it is given for 
what it is worth — a ghost story. 

author of this book regrets that there is not space to quote all of her picturesque nar- 
rative of the legends she has incorporated in her chapters about Moshup and his 
mythical associates. They vary in some particulars from the legends which are in 
print, but this is inseparable from such Uterature. 

^This word is another form of Tchippe, meaning separated, apart, that is, dead; 
hence, a spirit, a ghost, one apart from the living. "Abbamocho or Cheepie many 
times smites them with incurable diseases, scares them with apparitions and panic 
terrors." (Josselyn, Two Voyages, 133). 

^Josselyn: "Two Voyages"; comp., Higginson, " New England's Plantation," and 
Roger Williams' " Key into the Language of America." 

50 



The Aboriginal Inhabitants 

The last myth which it will be profitable to consider 
in this section relates to Cheepy, the other Evil One, and in- 
cludes a version of the building of the "Devil's Bridge." The 
building of this bridge was a matter of dispute between two 
elements of Aquinniuh; one whom we may designate as the 
progressive party, desired it for convenience of traveling to 
the main land, while the conservative portion of the inhab- 
itants felt that it would serve as a thoroughfare for those on 
the main as well, and thus they would be crowded by strangers, 
and their peaceful homes disturbed by a foreign element. 
The progressive sentiment prevailed and we consider it as the 
element inimical to the interests of the Indians, for it was 
influenced by the wiles of Cheepie. He agreed to build a 
permanent structure, not an unsubstantial affair of wood. 
A formal agreement and contract was drawn up between 
the people and Cheepie, by which he was to complete the 
bridge from Aquinniuh to Poocutoh-hunk-konnoh, now called 
by the shortened form of Cuttyhunk, between the hour of 
sunset and before the crowing of the cocks in the morning. 
Beginning the gigantic task according to his compact, Cheepie 
worked with all of his Titanic powers, and w^as making won- 
derful progress, when a plot contrived by one of the opposi- 
tion was brought into action. Doubtless it was devised by 
the Good Spirit, Michabo, but the local tale is silent on this 
phase of the legend. The bridge was rapidly pushing its 
length across the sound, when the trick was disclosed. It 
was based upon the habits of the cock, under the influence 
of light, whether it be natural or artificial, and one of the 
opposition was given the means to flash a torch in front of 
the cock whose crow was to mark the limit of time for Cheep- 
ie's contract. Waving the light before the astonished fowl, 
a loud crow and the flapping of wings was the response to 
the glaring flame, and the day was saved for the good Indians 
who opposed the mighty Evil Spirit. 

But in after years it did not need a bridge to make a way 
for the alien, and he came in great canoes, larger than they 
had ever seen before, and they were filled with Wautaconu- 
a-og, men with coats; of another color, from the east. They 
brought with them strange weapons, fashioned out of a new 
material, had red beards, and knew not Michabo or Cheepie, 
nor yet Squanto. It seemed as if they were of the expected 
people who were to come out of the rising sun, from the dawn, 
white ones like Michabo, and inhabit their hunting and fish- 
Si 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

ing grounds. The destiny of Moshup, the Good Spirit of 
Nope, was about to be fulfilled. "He told them, his simple 
subjects," as narrated by the grandmother of Thomas Cooper, 
before quoted, "that as the light had come among them and 
he belonged to the Kingdom of Darkness, he must take his 
leave; which, to their great sorrow, he accordingly did, and 
never has been heard of since." 

THE INDIAN MYTHOLOGY. 

The religion of the Indians of Nope was that of their 
great parent stock, a form of Polytheism. Besides the good 
and evil Ones, whose names are given in the relations of their 
folk-lore, they had more than a score of others. The younger 
Mayhew, in his story of the conversion of Hiacoomes, the 
first Christianized Indian of the Vineyard, states that the 
former companions of this primeval convert would catechize 
him about the new religion. "Myoxeo asking him how many 
Gods the English did worship, he answered, 'one God,' where- 
upon Myoxeo reckoned up about thirty-seven principal Gods 
he had, and 'shall I (said he) throw away these thirty-seven 
Gods for one?' "^ Evidently this incredulous native con- 
sidered the subject from a mathematical standpoint, and 
thought the showing was distinctly unfavorable for the whites. 
Roger Williams confirms this enumeration in his investiga- 
tions among the Narragansett tribe, who were allied to our 
own. "They have given me the names of thirty-seven, which 
I have, all which in their solemn worships they invocate."^ 
Among these gods of the Indian mythology were Wompa- 
nand, the "Eastern God," that is, of the dawn, or of day- 
light; Wunnanna meanit, the "Northern God"; Chekesu- 
wand, the "Western God"; Kautantowwit, the "South- 
western God," in whose domain, says Roger Williams, "the 
souls of all their great and good men and women go." This 
was their crude form of likening the rising sun to the begin- 
ning of life, and the setting of the same in the west as the 
end of light and life. Other gods were of special quality, 
such as Keesuckquand, the "Sun God"; Squauanit, the 
"Woman's God"; W^tuomanit, the "House God"; Paum- 
pagussit, the "Sea God"; Yotaanit, the "Fire God"; Nane- 
paushat, the "]Moon's God," and distinctive gods for good 

'Letter of Mayhew to Whitfield, Sept. 7, 1650. 
*" Key to Language, etc.," page no. 

52 



The Aboriginal Inhabitants 

and evil functions. The name adopted by the early Indian 
students, Mayhew, Eliot, Williams, and others, was Mani- 
tou, a word probably derived from "anue," meaning "above," 
with the suppositive participial form and indefinite prefix 
"m'anit," ''he who is above. "^ 

This religion was interpreted to the natives by a regular 
priesthood, whose members were called powwaws, or pau- 
waus, persons who are described by the missionary Mayhew 
as "such as cure by devilish sorcery, and to whom the devil 
appears sometimes."^ Their influence over the natives of 
the island was powerful, and it is constantly referred to by 
Mayhew as the principal obstacle to his progress in the work 
of teaching the Christian doctrines to those who wished to 
investigate the new belief. Their priestly duties comprised 
all forms of control of secular as well as spiritual affairs. 
Williams tells us that "they make solemn speeches and ora- 
tions, or Lectures to them concerning Religion, Peace, or 
Warre, and all thinge."^ Hariot says of them: "The inhab- 
itants give great credit unto their speeche, which often tymes 
they finde to be all true,"^ and Wood, one of the earliest writ- 
ers on the manners and customs of our New England abo- 
rigines, confirms this in his references to the powwaws. He 
states: "Their pow-woivs betakeing themselves to their ex- 
orcisms and necromanticke charmes by which they bring 
to passe strange thinge, if we may believe the Indians."^ 

The information about the Indians derived from Thom- 
as Cooper, above quoted, includes a description of the form 
of worship. "Whenever the Indians worshipped," he says, 
"they always sang and danced, and then begged of the sun 
and moon, as they thought most likely to hear ,them, to send 
them the desired favor; most generally rain or fair weather, 
or freedom from their enemies or sickness." These dances 
took place in the open, and one of their places of congrega- 
tion for such ceremonies was the "Dancing Field" in Christ- 
iantown. 

As an illustration of the manner of these powwaws in ex- 
orcising disease, the testimony of the younger Mayhew is 
of interest, as it came under his observation. "There was a 
very strange disease this yeare (1643)," he wrote, "amongst 

'Trumbull, "Natick Dictionary," 268. 

^Letter of Mayhew to J(ohn) D(ownam?), Nov. 18, 1647. 

^Key to Language, page iii. 

^Narrative (16S5). 

'New England's Prospect, c. xii (1634). 

53 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

the Indians: they did run up and down till they could run 
no longer; they made their faces black as a coale, snatched 
up any weapon, speaking great words, but did no hurt; I 
have seen many of them in this case."^ The Cooper legend, 
already quoted, gives us another picture of the native mak- 
ing a sort of sacrificial offering for the benefit of others less 
fortunate than himself, and leaves the realm of lore for that 
of fact. He says that consumption and yellow fever were the 
scourges of the Indians before the coming of the whites. In 
this nomenclature we must make some allowance for error, 
in the light of our knowledge of the diseases mentioned. It 
is probable that small pox was referred to in the term "yellow 
fever," as this disease is a tropical product exclusively, ex- 
cept in isolated cases which are imported to the north by 
rapid conveyance, at the present time. The pustular erup- 
tions of small pox, with the incrustations following, gave 
the body a yellowish appearance, which was described as 
a "yellow fever." This disease could be "laid," as he ex- 
plained, by the following ceremonies: "The rich, that is 
such as had a canoe, skins, axes, etc., brought them. They 
took their seats in a circle; and all the poor sat around 
without. The richest then proposed to begin to lay the sick- 
ness; and having in his hand something in shape resembling 
his canoe, skin or whatever else his riches were, he threw it 
up in the air, and whoever of the poor without could take 
it, the property it was intended to resemble became forever 
transferred to him or her. After the rich had thus given away 
all their movable property to the poor, they looked out the 
handsomest and most sprightly young man in the assembly 
and put him in an entirely new wigwam, built of everything 
new for that purpose. Then they formed into two files, at a 
small distance from each other, one standing in the space at 
each end, put fire to the bottom of the wigwam on all parts, 
and fell to singing and dancing. Presently the youth would 
leap out of the flames and fall down, to appearances dead. 
Him they committed to the care of five virgins, prepared for 
that purpose, to restore to life again. The time required 
for this would be uncertain, from six to forty-eight hours, 
during which time the dance must be kept up. When he was 
restored, he would tell that he had been carried in a large 
thing high up in the air, where he came to a great company of 

'Letter, Mayhew to Whitfield, Sept. 7, 1650. (" Light Appearing," etc., p. 4). 

54 



The Aboriginal Inhabitants 

white people, with whom he had interceded hard to have the 
distemper layed; and generally after much persuasion would 
obtain a promise, or answer of peace which never failed of 
laying the distemper." 

INDIAN WEAPONS AND UTENSILS. 

The implements used by the aborigines belonged to 
the stone age, with some exceptions referred to later on. Their 
weapons were made of various kinds of stone, and fashioned 
into arrow heads, spear points, and hammers, which were 
fastened to shafts or handles by thongs of skin, or the inside 
of the bark of willow trees. ^ Articles of domestic service, 
such as mortars and pestles for pounding up and pulveriz- 
ing their corn, were made of stone, and possibly mortars were 
fashioned out of oak wood by charring and hollowing out 
a cavity by successive applications of live coals. Fishing 
implements were probably made of bones ingeniously bent 
into form like a hook, and it is known that they were cog- 
nizant of the use of nets constructed of animal gut, flax, and 
vegetable binders, grasses, bark, and the like, as well as of 
the making of weirs for the herring runs. Undoubtedly 
they used spears for the larger fish, along the shores, but 
it is doubtful if they were ever much engaged in hunting 
the striped bass or blue fish with their primitive devices. 
One custom learned from the Indians was a form of fishing 
by torch-light, and known as "wequashing," a word which 
survives to this day in certain portions of New England. 
It is an anglicized participial form of weekquash, an eastern 
Algonquian term for fishing by an artificial light. The word 
wequai means "light," and we find wequananteg, a candle- 
stick, mentioned by Eliot. The Indian fishing stations on 
the island are well defined by the names which have survived. 
Kataamuck (Katama), a crab fishing place; Chickemmoo, 
weir fishing place; Uncawamuck (Eastville), further or ut- 
most fishing place; Quanaimes, the long fish place; Ashap- 
paquonsett, where the nets are spread, and others along 
the sea inlets and creeks. 

Many of the smaller stone implements are found every 
year in the farms about the island, when the ground is plowed 

'The means employed by the Indians in making these small arrow-heads, some 
of them small and delicate stones, has long remained a mystery. Recently, a student 
of archaology, after repeated experiments, has demonstrated the process by the use 
of a small hard-wood mallet. The shape of it is beveled and the stroke applied ac- 
cording to the cleavage of the stone employed. 

55 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

deeply. By this means several collections of arrow heads, 
spears, pestles, etc. have been made by those interested.^ 

The method employed by the Indians for starting a 
blaze, by the use of flint and tinder, is thus related by Brere- 
ton: "They strike fire in this manner; every one carrieth 
about him in a purse of tewed leather a Minerall stone (which 
I take to be their Copper), and with a flat Emerie stone (where- 
with Glasiers cut glasse, and Cutlers glase blades) tied fast 
to the end of a little sticke, gently he striketh upon the Miner- 
all stone, and within a stroke or two a sparke falleth upon 
a piece of Touchwood (much like our Spunge in England), 
and with the least sparke he maketh a fire presently." ^ 

That the aborigines had knowledge of the use of copper 
is clearly established by the testimony of Brereton. The 
objects fashioned from it must have been obtained from the 
natives of the Lake Superior region by a system of exchange 
or purchase, through intermediaries on the main land. The 
journalist of Gosnold's voyage says: 

None of them but have chaines, earrings, or collars of this mettal; 
they head some of their arrows herewith, much like our broad arrow heads, 
very workmanly made. Their chaines are many hollow pieces semented 
together, ech piece of the bignesse of one of our reeds, a finger in length 
ten or twelve of them together on a string, which they weare about their 
necks; their collars they weare about their bodies like bandelieres, a 
handfuU broad, all hollow pieces, like the other, but somewhat shorter 
foure hundred pieces in a collar, very fine and evenly set together. Be- 
sides these, they have large drinking cups, made like seniles, and other 
thinne plates of Copper, made much like our boare speare blades, all 
which they so little esteeme, as they offere their fairest collars or chaines 
for a knife or such like trifle, but we seemed little to regard it; yet I was 
desirous to understand where they had such store of this mettall, and 
made signes to one of them (with whom I was verie familiar), who, tak- 
ing a piece of Copper in his hand, made a hole with his finger in the 
ground and withall pointed to the maine from whence they came.' 



ABORIGINAL POPULATION. 

Of the number of Indians living on the island at this 
period, we are without definite knowledge. One author- 

'The late Rev. Daniel Stevens of Vineyard Haven was an early collector and his 
specimens, inherited by a son, are now on deposit in an historical museum in Bristol, 
R. I., while a fine array of all varieties of implements has been gathered by Mr. Chester- 
Poole, Mr. Daniel Vincent and Mrs. Frank P. Flanders, all of Chilmark. The author 
also has a small collection of arrow heads and spear heads. 

^Brief and True Relation, lo. 

'True Relation, 9. 

56 



The Aboriginal Inhabitants 

ity estimated the Indian population in 1642 as three thousand/ 
Whether their numbers had been affected by the "epidem- 
icall disease" which, for three years prior to the landing 
at Plymouth had decimated some tribes, and is believed 
to have been the small-pox, is not known; but presumably 
they suffered somewhat from the then prevailing scourge, 
which existed along the coast from the Penobscot to Narra- 
gansett bay.^ 

These, then, were the people inhabiting our island as 
lords of the soil, from the remotest periods to the time when 
it passed into the possession of the English owners by "right" 
of discovery and settlement. 

' 2 Mass. Hist. Coll., Ill, 92. 

^ Daniel Gookin, writing in 1674, says: "I have discoursed viath some old Indians, 
that were then youths, who say that the bodies all over were exceeding yellow (de- 
scribing it by a yellow garment he showed me), both before they died and afterwards." 
(Ibid., I, 148). 



«& 




-Section at A-B- 



STONE IMPLEMENT, 
Found at Mill HaL, Edgarto;\'n.^ 



'The author is indebted to Mr. Geo. M. Warren, engineer in charge of the con- 
struction of the water supply system of Edgartown, for a description of this stone 
weapon found by him in 1906 during excavations at this place. 



57 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

CHAPTER HI. 
Early Voyages of Discovery. 

It cannot be said that the history of Martha's Vineyard 
begins with the voyages of the Norsemen to the country called 
Vinland by them during their visits to an unexplored region 
in the unknown west, in the loth and nth centuries, for much 
of the truth of their discoveries lies hidden in the mysterious 
descriptions of the Icelandic sagas. The general consensus 
of historical judgment is that these hardy mariners penetrated 
our New England coast lines during the period covered by 
their voyages, and the only points of dispute that arise touch 
the attempted identification of localities described by them 
in their sagas. Here local pride and historical acumen often 
strain at their moorings in the endeavor to adopt the general- 
ized narrative of the writers to local surroundings. The 
most careful and conservative commentary on the subject 
accepts the view of their visit to the southern coast of New 
England, and upon this basis proceeds to a scheme of identi- 
fication of locality. This feature is the work of Professor 
C. C. Rafn, the learned geographer and student of Norse 
literature.^ 

In the saga of Thorfinn Karlsefne, narrating a voyage 
undertaken in the year 1006, the following description oc- 
curs respecting the locality about the south shore of Cape 
Cod, which they called Kiarlness, Keel-nose, because it re- 
sembled the keel of a ship. The writer thus continues: 

They sailed into a frith ; there lay an island before it, round which 
there were strong currents, therefore called they it Stream island. There 
were so many eider ducks on the island that one could scarcely walk in 
consequence of the eggs. 

The name of Stream island in Icelandic is Straumey, 
which the learned geographer Rafn has identified as Martha's 
Vineyard, and which is accepted by the editor of the sagas 
as the correct inference. In the light of such high author- 
ity, we may rest our case of the visit of the Norsemen to the 
Vineyard and adopt their conclusions. So the first known 

'Vovages of the Norsemen in the loth and nth centuries, bv Edmund F. Slafter, 
A. M., D. D., Prince Society, Vol. X. 

58 



Early Voyages of Discovery 

name of our island, christened almost nine centuries ago, 
was Straumey, the stream island, so called because of that 
peculiar co-tidal phenomena which impressed all the early 
voyagers, sailing into these waters. 

VERRAZZANO'S VOYAGE, 1 524. 

Over five hundred years elapse before we have any further 
definite record of a European exploration into these waters, 
and this was the voyage of the Italian navigator, Giovanni 
da Verrazzano. He was a corsair in the French service 
and left France in 1523, in command of an expedition which 
explored the coast of North America, from North Caro- 
lina to Newfoundland during 1524, and in the course of this 
extended travel along our shores, he entered New York bay 
and spent some time in and about Narragansett Bay. While 
it is not possible to say that he set foot upon the Vineyard, 
yet it is within the probabilities that he did not pass by the 
largest island on the coast without making a landing. He 
is supposed to have disembarked upon one of the islands 
off this coast, which some have thought to be Block island, 
but it does not seem reasonable that he would specially desig- 
nate a small island, and not notice one next to it thrice its 
size. But the maps and narratives of the early explorers 
are mysterious reading, and it is only possible to say that he 
named an island off the south coast of New England in hon- 
or of the mother of Francis I. of France. Mercator, who 
made the map based upon the explorations of Verrazzano, con- 
founded the name of Claudia, the wife of Francis I., with 
that of the king's mother, Luisa, and so placed the form.er 
name on his charts. Others followed his nomenclature, 
and it was not until modern discovery of Verrazzano's own 
map showed that the voyager had properly placed the name 
of Luisa on the island he had found. A number of histor- 
ical students consider that it refers to the Vineyard.^ If 
this be true, it will be seen that our island bore the name of 
Luisa before it came to be known as Martha. 

THE LANDING OF GOSNOLD, l6o2. 

With our succeeding navigator, Bartholomew Gosnold, 
we are getting upon sure ground, as his voyage is so well 

'Brodhead, History of New York, I, 57; comp., Historical Magazine, II, 99; Mag- 
azine of American History, February 1893, p. 91. 

59 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

described by two journalists, that we may follow him from 
his port of departure, ''upon the five and twentieth of March, 
1602, being Friday," when he set sail "from Falmouth, be- 
ing in all two and thirty persons, in a small barke of Dart- 
mouth, called the Concord, holding a course for the north 
part of Virginia," as all this region was then called. Of 
the personality of this early discoverer, but little has been 
known, until recent years, when, through the investigations 
of an antiquarian, his lineage has been established, and we 
now know that he was the son and heir of Anthony Gosnold 
of Grundisburgh, in the county of Suffolk, and of the older 
family of Gosnold of Otley in the same county.^ His mother 
was Dorothy, daughter of George and Margaret Bacon of 
Hessett, county of Suffolk, and through this connection he 
was related to the well known Nathaniel Bacon, the "rebel" 
of Virginia, although they were of different generations, and 
distant kindred comprised the distinguished names of Sir 
Nicholas Bacon and his more famous son, known as Lord 
Bacon, "the wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind." An- 
other relative connected with early American colonization 
was Edward Maria Wingfield, Governor of Virginia in 1607, 
when Gosnold was a resident of that colony. The wife of 
Captain Gosnold was Catherine Barrington, thought to be 
the daughter of Sir Thomas Barrington of Hatfield, county 
of Essex, and thus it will be seen that he was of the best stock 
in England at that time; but his fame does not rest upon 
this aggregation of distinguished names, for his own eminent 
services to his country are enough to place him above the 
reflected glory of kith and kin, however celebrated. This 
dauntless pioneer, who sailed the shorter route across the 
Atlantic, discovered, or at least named the Elizabeth islands 
and founded the first settlement of white men on our shores, has 
a personality of his own, which we are glad to recognize, 
in view of his intimate connection with the beginnings of 
the definite history of Martha's Vineyard. 

Of his voyage hither, his journalist says that it was long- 
er than expected, notwithstanding they made a direct course 
from the Azores, because the bark was "weake" and the 
sailors few, and "our going upon an unknowen coast made 
us not over-bolde to stand in with the shore." On Friday, 
the 14th of May, early in the morning, they made land, nearly 

'J. Henry Lea in Genealogical Register, LVI, 402, et seq. 
60 



Early Voyages of Discovery 

six weeks after leaving Falmouth, and they found their fall 
along a shore marked by low hummocks, full of "fair trees," 
and reaches of white sand/ At noon Gosnold anchored, 
when "sixe Indians, in a Baske shallop with mast and saile, 
an iron grapple, and a kettle of copper, came boldly abord 
us, one of them apparrelled with a wastcoat and breeches 
of black serdge, made after our sea-fashion, hose and shoes 
on his feet ; all the rest (saving one that had a paire of breeches 
of blue cloth) were all naked." It seemed that some fisher- 
men of St. Jean de Luz, as they supposed, had been trading 
or fishing there at some time previous.^ Gosnold weighed 
anchor at three in the afternoon, and standing on a souther- 
ly course the rest of the day and the night following, they 
found themselves in the morning "embayed with a mightie 
headland," and at nine o'clock Gosnold anchored and went 
ashore with four of the ship's company and marched "all 
that afternoon with our muskets on our necks." They found 
this headland to be a part of the main land. During their 
absence the crew had busied themselves with catching fish, 
and "had pestered our ship so with Cod fish that we threw 
numbers of them over-bord againe." In commemoration 
of this event, Gosnold named the place "Cape Cod," a name 
it has ever since borne. 

"From this place," continues the narrator, "we sailed 
round about this headland, almost all points of the compasse, 
the shore very bolde; but as no coast is free from dangers, 
so I am persuaded, this is as free as any; the land somewhat 
low, full of goodly woods, but in some places plaine ; at length 
we were comiC amongst many faire Islands, which we had 
partly discerned at our first landing; all lying within a league 
or two one of another, and the outermost not above sixe or 
seven leagues from the maine." It is evident that Gosnold 
had doubled Cape Cod and coursed along in Nantucket 
sound and gone outside, through Muskeget channel, as the 
safest direction, to prevent a possible entrance into a bay 
with uncertain water. 

The narrative continues: "But comminge to an anker 
under one of these (i. e., islands), which was about three or 
foure leagues from the maine, Captaine Gosnold, myselfe, 

'This landfall was about the region of Cape Ann. Pring, in the narrative of his 
voyage the next year (1603), says: "We bare into that great Gulfe which Captaine 
Gosnold overshot the yerre laefore" (Massachusetts Bay). 

^S. Jean de Luz is a little fishing port on the Bay of Biscay, on the French coast, 
almost to the Spanish frontier. Doubtless many of these hardy, but unknown mariners, 
had made unrecorded voyages to our coast for years prior to 1600. 

61 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

and some others, went ashore, and going round about it, 
we found it to be foure English miles in compasse, without 
house or inhabitant, saving a little, old house made of boughes, 
covered with barke, an old piece of a weare of the Indians, 
to catch fjsh, and one or two places where they had made 
fires." This was the present Noman's I>and which they 
explored, but in the margin of the text is this legend, opposite 
this description: "The first Island called Marthses Vineyard." 
Thus appears for the first time in any printed or written rec- 
ord the name which is now attached to our island. The 
journalist then describes the flora and fauna of this islet, 
noting "an incredible store of Vines, as well in the woodie 
part of the Island, where they run upon every tree, as upon 
the outward parts, that we could not goe for treading upon 
them." 

He then speaks of "a great standing lake of fresh water, 
neere the sea side, an English mile in compasse, which is 
m^ainteined with the springs running exceeding pleasantly 
thorow the woodie grounds, which are very rockie." It is 
only fair to say that no such "lake" now exists on Noman's 
Land, and it may be that Gosnold's journalist was drawing 
on his imagination for the benefit of the English reading pub- 
lic, or that the narration was purposely erroneous to deceive 
rival navigators of the French and Spanish nations. It will 
be understood that at this time there was great jealousy among 
the maritime peoples as to priority of discovery, and each 
explorer was bound to mislead the competing captains of 
his rivals, and it was a common thing for them to give wrong 
latitude and other points for this purpose.^ It is still a ques- 
tion in the mind of the author whether Gosnold did not really 
land on the Vineyard proper, and so confuse his narrative to 
the end that others might not profit by it, except in a general 
way. Indeed, his description of "another island" so fits 
the topographical conditions of the south side of the Vineyard 
that one can hardly refrain from declaring it to be a true state- 
ment of the case. He says: "From hence (i. e., the first or 
Noman's Land) we went to another Island to the Northwest 
of this, and within a league or two of the maine, which we 
found to be greater than before we imagined, being i6 Eng- 
lish miles at the least in compasse; for it conteineth many 
pieces or necks of land, which differ nothing from several! 

'Brereton says the latitude was 43, which wovdd take us up to Portsmouth, N. H. 
The actual latitude of Cape Cod is 41.32 to 42.05. 

62 



Early Voyages of Discovery 

Islands, saving that certeine banks of small bredth do like 
bridged joyne them to this Island." The necks running 
into the south beach never had a more picturesque descrip- 
tion than this. Opposite this, however, in the margin, is 
the legend "Elizabeths Island," and we must suppose that 
Cuttyhunk is intended, but making all due allowance for 
the contour of that island, sand spits and all, the circum- 
ference of it is not half of sixteen miles credited to the one 
he was describing. But the Vineyard is greater, and rough- 
ly speaking, about sixty miles in circumference, and the ques- 
tion arises, did the journalist mean sixteen or sixty "English 
miles, at the least, in compasse"? He goes on further: "On 
the northwest side of this island, neere to the sea side, is a 
standing Lake of fresh water, almost three English miles in 
compasse, in the middest whereof stands a plot of woodie 
ground, an acre in quantitie, or not above." The pond on 
Cuttyhunk is supposed to be referred to here, though it is 
stated to be on the island sixteen miles, at least, in circum- 
ference, while the pond itself is only about a mile and three- 
quarters in circumference, following all its windings. These 
variations from the actual measurements will give some idea 
of the difhculty of arriving at certain conclusions from the 
narratives of the early voyagers. 

On May 24, they set sail and doubled the cape of an- 
other island next to the one first explored, and this they called 
Dover Cliff, which undoubtedly refers to Gay Head, "and 
then came into a fair sound, where we rode all night." The 
next day the company went on an errand of investigation 
and "discovered" another cape that lay northwest of this, 
"between us and the main, from which were a ledge of rocks 
a mile into the sea," a description that well fits Cuttyhunk 
and the Sow and Pigs reef. They went about this and came 
to anchor in eight fathoms, "a quarter of a mile from the 
shore, in one of the stateliest sounds that ever I was in. This 
we called Gosnold's Hope, the North Bank whereof is the 
main, which stretcheth east and west." This is the present 
Buzzards Bay, which they explored to some extent, and re- 
turned to the ship for the night. "Now the next day," the 
narrative continues, "we determined to fortifie ourselves 
in the little plot of ground in the midst of the Lake above 
mentioned, where we built an house and covered it with sedge, 
which grew about this lake in great abundance; in building 
whereof, we spent three weeks and more." 

63 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

Their intercourse with the natives was of a pacific char- 
acter, the simple savages coming freely to them for the pur- 
pose of trading his furs and copper ornaments for such trinkets 
as the company had, knives, cloths, and articles of personal 
adornment. A party of fifty came at first, after some cer- 
emony, including the exchange of presents; when these 
formalities were finished, Captain Gosnold "sent for meat 
aboord our shallop, and gave them such meats as we then 
had readie dressed, whereof they misliked nothing but our 
mustard, whereat they made many a sowre face." The 
rest of that day was spent in trading with them for furs, "which 
are Beavers, Luzernes, Marterns, Otters, Wild-Cat skinnes, very 
large and deepe furre, blacke foxes, Conie skinnes, of the 
colour of our Hares, but somewhat lesse, Deere skinnes very 
large. Scale skinnes, and other beast skinnes to us unknowen." 
These Indians staid about their island for three days, retir- 
ing every night "to the furthermost part of our island, two 
or three miles from our fort," which would land them into 
the sea, if they really went that distance, as the island is barely 
two miles long at its extreme limits. 

During the rest of their stay there the company gathered 
sassafras root, in which they were assisted by the natives, 
and loaded their vessel with this product of the new country. 
At that time the roots were worth three shillings a pound, 
and it was a valuable commodity. The climate was entire- 
ly satisfactory to them, as Brereton states that "we found 
our health & strength all the while we remained there, so 
to renew and increase, as notwithstanding our diet and lodg- 
ing was none of the best, yet none of our Company (God be 
thanked) felt the least grudging or inclination to any disease 
or sickness, but were much fatter and in better health than 
when we went out of England." The middle of June had 
arrived and their vessel had been filled with skins, furs, sas- 
safras, cedar, and other commodities, and part of them de- 
sired to return. "Some of our company," continues the 
journalist, "that had promised captaine Gosnold to stay, 
having nothing but a saving voyage in their minds, made 
our company of inhabitants (which was small enough before) 
much smaller; so as captaine Gosnold, seeing his whole strength 
to consist but of twelve men, and they but meanly provided, 
determined to returne for England, leaving this island (which 
he called Elizabeths Island) with as many true sorrowful 
eies, as were before desirous to see it. So the i8 of June 

64 



Early Voyages of Discovery 

being Friday, we weighed, and with indifferent faire winde 
and weather came to anker the 23 of July, being also Fri- 
day (in all, bare five weeks) before Exmouth." The voy- 
age from port to port was exactly four months, of which over 
half was spent on the ocean, and exploring, but short as was 
their stay in this region it is generally regarded as the true 
beginning of the history of New England.' 

Gosnold never returned to the scene of this first settle- 
ment on our shores. He was afterwards second in command 
of the little fleet which set sail for Virginia on Dec. 20, 
1606, under Captain Christopher Newport, and he became 
a member of "His Majestie's Counsel of His First Colony 
in Virginia." He died there on Aug. 22, 1607, and his 
bones lie in some nameless grave about Jamestown. Little 
or nothing is known of the subsequent history of John Brere- 
ton, the historian of the voyage, unless he be the same person 
who was convicted of manslaughter in 161 1, and pardoned, 
or the John Brereton who applied for a license in 161 3 to 
keep an inn at Chester. The known members of the com- 
pany, besides those already mentioned, were Bartholomew 
Gilbert, second officer; Robert Saltern, who was afterwards 
a clergyman; Gabriel Archer, gentleman and journalist; 
John Angel, William Streete, Robert Meriton and . . . 
Tucker. 

In 1903, in commemoration of the ter-centennial of the 
events above described, several gentlemen interested in his- 
torical matters, erected a granite shaft on Cuttyhunk, which 
should be a beacon for mariners, and a memorial of the first 
settlement of Englishmen in New England. 

champlain's voyage, 1606. 

The next voyager to visit our island was the celebrated 
Frenchman, Samuel Chamiplain, who has perpetuated his 
name in one of the largest and most beautiful of the New Eng- 
land lakes. In 1606, he skirted along the coast, doubled 
Cape Cod, which he had christened Cap Malebarre, and 
made a harbor inside of Monomioy. Here he anchored in 
Oyster Bay, drew an excellent chart of the haven and road- 

' The original authorities on this voyage are: Brereton's "A Briefe and true 
Relation of the Discoverie of the North part of Virginia &c," London, 1602; and Ga- 
briel Archer's Relation of Captain Gosnold's Voyage to the north part of Virginia, 

begun 1602, &c.," in Purchas, his Pilgrimes, vol. IV, London, 1625; reprinted 

in 3 Mass. Hist. Coll., VIII, Boston, 1843. 

65 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

stead, and had a sharp conflict with the natives. Then he 
sailed on and thus narrates his progress westward: 

After having gone some six or seven leagues (about twenty miles), 
we sighted an island which we named La Soupgonneuse, because, in the 
distance, we had several times thought it was not an island. 

From the low decks of their small shallops they were not 
able to distinguish the natural features of the land and water 
sufficiently to demonstrate between the main, the islands, penin- 
sulas, tidal inlets, and rivers, and so, in their quandary, as 
they approached the unknown island, Champlain christened 
the Indian Nope as I>a vSoupocnneuse, meaning "the sus- 
picious" literally, or freely translated "the doubtful." Thence 
they passed by the Chops and Woods Hole, where Champlain, 
noticing the strong tidal outflow concluded it to be the mouth 
of a river, and gave his name to it as such. Our island has 
thus a third name to its credit, La Soupgonneuse. 

block's and christiaensen's voyages, 1611-1614. 

Subsequent years brought the adventurous Dutchmen 
into the field of colonial enterprise, and the next exploration 
of this region was made by Hendrick Christiaensen of Cleves, 
near Nymegen, who, with Adrisen Block, sailed for Manhat- 
tan about 161 1, and having successfully accomplished the 
voyage, were sent back again in the next year. Block Island 
is a memorial of this hardy navigator from Holland.^ 

In 1614, Block again sailed upon this coast, and explored 
Buzzards Bay, and in the course of his narrative describes 
the large "white and clayey" island commonly called "Tex- 
el" by tbe Dutch cartographers, in honor of one of the West 
Friesian islands off the coast of the Netherlands, which was 
probably applied to the Vineyard by Block himself. South 
of Texel he observed a small island, w^hich he furnished with 
the name of his old companion, Hendrick Christiaensen, 
and for years after, in the old maps of Dutch make, this mari- 
ner's name is given to Noman's Land. 

It is more than probable that many of these voyagers 
landed upon this island, now known by the name of Martha's 
Vineyard, in the course of their explorations, but the record 
of it has not come down to us. In the case of the Dutch 

'Wassenaar, Historische Verhael, etc., VIII, 85. Christiaensen afterwards made 
ten voyages to Manhattan- 

66 



Early Voyages of Discovery 

they had a definite object in view, the settlement of Manhat- 
tan island, and did not undertake to investigate other places, 
except incidentally, 

CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH, 1614. 

The next explorer to engage our attention is the redoubt- 
able John Smith, the "Captain" John who had so many 
romantic adventures in Virginia, in 1607 and 1608, of which 
the Pocahontas incident is the most famous. Captain Smith, 
after his return to London, interested some merchants of 
that city in an expedition which he projected for the explora- 
tion of the northern Atlantic coast, and in 1614 he set sail 
with a small number of vessels, having under him, among 
other masters, a Captain Hunt, in command of the "Long 
Robert." Smith sailed along the New England coast from 
Penobscot to Cape Cod, and after finishing his voyage, he 
returned home, leaving this Hunt to continue the work. It 
appears that Captain Hunt must have gone around the 
cape, perhaps in the region of Chatham or the south shore 
about Monomoy, where he found opportunity to surprise 
and capture about two dozen of the natives who had come 
aboard his ship. Smith thus comments upon this act of 
treachery : — 

But one Thomas Hunt, the Master of this ship (when I was gone), 
thinking to prevent the intent I had to make there a Plantation, thereby 
to keepe this abounding Countrey still in obscuritie, that onely he and 
some few Merchants might enjoy wholly the Trade and profit of this 
Countrey, betraied foure and twenty of those poore Salvages aboord his 
ship; and most dishonestly and inhumanely, for their kinde usage of me 
and all our men, carried them with him to Maligo, and there for a little 
private gaine sold those silly Salvages for Rialls of eight; but this vilde 
act kept him ever after from any more emploiment in those parts.' 

Accounts differ as to the precise place where this kidnap- 
ping aft'air occurred. Smith, who wrote nearer the time 
of the event, states that "at Capawe(k) they tooke Cone- 
conam and Epenow," while Sir Ferdinando Gorges, who 
prepared his narrative of his Colonial adventures more than 
two score years after, says that the capture took place "upon 
the main."- It is not very material to us, except that it has 

'Generall Historic, VI, 205. 

'■^Gardiner in his "New England's Vindication" says: " and one Hunt 

at the end of bis voyage, in the Long-Robert betrayed 22 of the Natives aboard his 
ship, carried them for Spain, to sell them for slaves; (an 111 act) they would not work; 
the Spaniards refused them; brought for England; Hunt taken by the Turks coming 
home. (p. 2.) 

67 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

a particular bearing on our local history, for one of the pris- 
oners was a Vineyard native, named Epenow, or Appanow, 
and his subsequent adventures form an extended story in 
Gorges' book. It will be best to let that author present the 
facts about this savage in his own words: 

While I was laboring by what means I might best continue life in 
my languishing hopes, there comes one Captain Henry Harley unto me, 
bringing with him a native of the island of Capawick, a place seated to 
the southward of Cape Cod, whose name was Epenowe, a person of a 
goodly stature, strong and well proportioned. This man was taken upon 
the main with some twenty-nine others, by a ship of London, that endeav- 
oured to sell them for slaves in Spain; but being understood that they 
were Americans, and found to be unapt for their uses, they would not 
meddle with them, this being one of them they refused. Wherein they 
expressed more worth than those that brought them to the market, who 
could not but know that our nation was at. that time in travail for settling 
of Christian colonies upon that continent, it being an act tending to our 
prejudice, when we came into that part of the countries, as it shall further 
appear. How Captain Hariey came to be possessed of this savage, I know 
not; but I understood by others how he had been showed in London for 
a wonder. It is true (as I Have said) he was a goodly man, of a brave 
aspect, stout, and sober in his demeanor, and had learned so much Eng- 
lish as to bid those that wondered at him "Welcome! Welcome!" this 
being the last and best use they could make of him, that was not grown out 
of the people's wonder. 

At the time this new savage came unto me, I had recovered Assa- 
cumet, one of the natives I sent with Captain Chalownes in his unhappy 
employment, with whom I lodged Epenow, who at first hardly understood 
one another's speech; 'til after a while I perceived the difference was no 
more than that of ours is between the Northern and Southern people; 
so that I was a little eased in the use I made of my old servant, whom I 
engaged to give an account of what he learned by conference between 
themselves, and he as faithfully performed it. Being fully satisfied of 
what he was able to say, and the time of making ready drawing on, fol- 
owing my pretended designs, I thought it became me to acquaint the thrice 
honoured Lord of Southampton with it, for that I knew the Captain had 
some relation to his Lordship, and I not wiUing in those days to under- 
take any matter extraordinary without his Lordship's advice; who ap- 
proved of it so well that he adventured one hundred pounds in that em- 
ployment, and his Lordship being at that time commander of the Isle 
of Wight, where the Captain had his abiding place under his Lordship, 
out of his nobleness was pleased to furnish me with some of his land sol- 
diers, and to commend to me a grave gentleman, one Captain Hobson, 
who was willing to go to that voyage and to adventure one hundred pounds 
himself. To him I gave the command of the ship, all things being ready, 
and our company came together, attending for a fair wind. They set 
sail in June, in anno 1614, being fully instructed how to demean them- 
selves in every kind, carrying with them Epenow, Assacomet, and We- 
nape, another native of those parts, sent to me out of the Isle of W'ight 

68 . 



Early Voyages of Discovery 

for my better information in the parts of the country of his knowledge. 
When, as it pleased God that they were arrived upon the coast, they were 
piloted from place to place by the natives as well as their hearts could 
desire. And coming to the harbor where Epenow was to make good his 
undertaking, the principal inhabitants of the place came aboard, some of 
them being his brothers, others his near cousins; who, after they had com- 
muned together, were kindly entertained by the Captain, departed in their 
canoes, promising the next morning to come aboard again and bring some 
trade with them. But Epenow privately (as it appeared) had contracted 
with his friends how he might make his escape without performing what 
he had undertaken, being in truth no more than he had told me he was 
to do, though with loss of life; for otherwise, if it were found that he had 
discovered the secrets of his country, he was sure to have his brains knocked 
out as soon as he came ashore. For that cause I gave the Captain strict 
charge to endeavor by all means to prevent his escaping from them; and 
for the more surety, I gave order to have three gentlemen of my own kin- 
dred (two brothers of Sturton's and Master Matthews) to be ever at hand 
with him, clothing him with long garments, fitly to be laid hold on if oc- 
casion should require. Notwithstanding, all his friends being all come 
at the time appointed with twenty canoes, and lying at a certain distance 
v/ith their bows ready, the Captain calls to them to come aboard; but 
they not moving, he speaks to Epenow to come unto him where he was, 
in the forecastle of the ship. He then being in the waist of the ship, between 
two of the gentlemen that had him in guard, starts suddenly from them 
and coming to the Captain, calls to his friends in English to come aboard; 
in the nterim slips himself overboard, and although he was taken hold 
of by one of the company, yet being a strong, heavy man, could not be 
stayed, and was no sooner in the water but the natives sent such a shower 
of arrows, and withal came so desperately near the ship, that they carried 
him away in despite of all the musketeers aboard, who were for the num- 
ber as good as our nation did afford."* 

Captain John Smith gives us some further light upon 
this voyage. He says: — 

Some of Plimoth and divers Gentlemen of the West Countrey, a 
little while before I returned from New England in search for a mine of 
Gold about an He called Capawick, Southwards from the Shoules of 
Cape James (Cod), as they were informed by a Salvage called Epenow." 
He further adds: "that having deluded them as it seems thus to get home, 
seeing they kept him as a prisoner in his owne Countrey, and before his 
friends; being a man of so great a stature and it seems of no less courage 
and authoritie than of wit strength and proportion. For so well had he 
contrived his businesse, as many reported he intended to have surprised 
the ship; but seeing it could not be affected to his liking, before them all 
he leaped overboard. Many shot they made at him, thinking they had 
slaine him; but so resolute were they to recover his body, the master of 
the ship was wounded and many of his company. And thus they lost 
him; and not knowing more what to do, returned againe to England for 
nothins." '" 



'Briefe Narration, 13-16. 
^Generall Historic, VI., 206. 



69 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

This incident remained an unpleasant memory in the 
minds of the natives of the Cape and the Vineyard for many 
years. After the Pilgrims had landed at Plymouth, the 
Indians of that region and to the southward held resentment 
against the whites for this act. Morton, the secretary of 
the colony, in his "Memorial," a history of events beginning 
with the arrival of the Mayflower, says under date of 1621: 
"This people are ill affected to us because of Hunt, who 
carried away twenty from this place we now inhabit, and 
seven from the Nausites, as before observed."^ Nauset 
is the present Eastham, and the Nausites were the tribe which 
inhabited that territory. Smith adds the following infor- 
mation upon this point about the year 1623: "Massasoit, 
on his sick bed, told Governour Winslow that all the people 
(Indians) of Powm.et, Nawset, Succonet, Mattachist, Mana- 
met, Agawam, and Capawac were joyned to murder us (i. e., 
the English at Plymouth)."^ 

dermer's visit, 161 9. 

Another English seaman, exploring the New England 
coast in i6ig, came to the Vineyard in the course of his voy- 
age, and renewed acquaintance with Epenow, whom it seems 
he had met in England. In a letter to Samuel Purchase, 
dated Dec. 27, i6iq, this explorer. Captain Thomas Der- 
mer, says: — 

"Departing hence (Manamock, i. e., Monomoy), the next place 
we arrived at was Capavek, an island formerly discovered by the English, 
where I met Epenow, a savage that lived in England and speaks indif- 
ferent good English, who foure yeeres since, being carried home, was re- 
ported to have been slaine with divers of his country men by Saylers, 
which was false."' 

The next year Dermer returned to the island and had 
a narrow escape from death. He was on a trading expedition, 
and had been at Plymouth, where he took on board the cel- 
ebrated Squanto, probably as an interpreter, and shaped 
his course for Nope or Capawack. Morton thus describes 
the event: "he (Dermer) going ashore among the Indians 

'New England's Memorial (1669), 21. , 

"Generall Historie, VI, 238. 

•'Among the Indian sachems who came to Plymouth in 1621 and subscribed al- 
legiance to King James was Appanow, but whether tliis Indian was the Vineyard Ep- 
enow can not be said with certainty. He was not described as a principal man among 
the indians by Gorges, but his adventures may have gained him a sachemship. (Mor- 
ton, Memorial.) 



Early Voyages of Discovery 

to trade as he used to do, was assaulted and betrayed *,by 
them, and all his men slain, but one that kept the boat; but 
himself got on board very sore wounded, and they had cut 
off his head upon the cuddy of the boat, had not his man res- 
cued him with a sword; and so they got him away and made 
shift to get into Virginia, where he died, whether of his wounds 
or the diseases of the country, or both, is uncertain."^ 

THE PILGRIM PERIOD, 1620-1640. 

We are now arrived at the time of the Pilgrim landing 
at Provincetown and Plymouth in the last months of the year 
1620, when it may be said that the period of exploration closed 
and that of colonization was inaugurated on these New Eng- 
land shores. There is no record of any visitation of these 
new comers to the Vineyard during the twenty years fol- 
lowing, as they were fully occupied in caring for their own 
little settlements, and could have no time to devote to curious 
expeditions on contiguous shores. About 1630, the region 
about Boston bes-an to have its o-reat influx of settlers, and 
five years later they overflowed into the territory now com- 
prised in Connecticut. Probably many of them went by land, 
but doubtless numbers sailed round the Cape and sought their 
new homes by coasting vessels. In their way they must 
have made harbor in our numerous havens, as now the mer- 
chantmen seek them to-day, but they left no trace of their 
comings or goings. The savage was then too much of a prob- 
lem for them to try the experiment of isolating themselves 
on an island populated with them, and thus be out of the 
reach of help in time of hostile attacks, so the Vineyard and 
Nantucket were passed by for the present by these seekers 
of new homes in the newly crowded settlements on the sea 
coast of Massachusetts. 

The Council for New England, which had for thirty 
years been in active operation for the development of this 
great region, now comprising the six states, found that it 
had reached the maximum of its powers and usefulness, and 
after dividing the territory among themselves, as best they 
could, v/ith their limited knowledge of the geography of the 
place, surrendered their charter to the king. This division 
has an interest to us, for two of the members "drew" shares 
covering the islands on the south of New England, and be- 

'New England's Memorial. 

71 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

cause of their hazy knowledge of the region, conflicting claims 
arose, as will be detailed later on. Sir Ferdinando Gorges 
was given that portion of the province of Maine from the 
Piscataqua to the Sagadahoc, "and hereunto is to be added 
the North halfe of the Isles of Shoals & also the Isles of Cap- 
awock, Nautican &c near unto Cape Codd." Lord Stir- 
ling was granted certain territory adjoining to Gorges in 
Maine, and "hereunto is to belong the Island called Matta- 
wack or the Long Island."^ This division was effected on 
Feb. 3, 1634-5, and it was confirmed three years later. On 
April 3, 1639, King Charles granted a charter to Gorges, 
conferring extraordinary privileges in the government of 
this territory, and by its terms "the Isles of Capawock and 
Nautican, near unto Cape Cod" were specifically included. 
This charter gave to Sir Ferdinando, therefore, undoubted 
sovereign rights over Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. 
From this it may be seen that the title to this island and Nan- 
tucket was surely vested in Gorges, and that the later preten- 
sions of Lord Stirling to any propriety were utterly unfounded. 

These islands were yet virgin soil, in the sole possession 
of the savage. Captain John Underhill, in his account of 
the settlements in this country in 1638, says: 

"Nahanticot, Martins Vineyard, Pequeet, Narragansett 
Bay, Elizabeth Hands, all these places are yet uninhabited, 
and generally aftord good accomodation, as a good soyle, 
as we have expressed; they are little inferiour to the former 
places."^ 




ARMS OF CAPT. BARTHOLOMEN GOSXOLD. 



'Records of the Council for New England, 69, 70, S3. 
*Newes from America (London, 1638), p. 20. 



72 



What is the Correct Name of the Vineyard? 



CHAPTER IV. 
What is the Correct Name of the Vineyard? 

"Martin's Vineyard .... some call it Marthaes Vine- 
yard:" thus wrote Whitfield in " The Light Appearing''^ (1651), 
and it is a strange fact that there was great uncertainty in 
the 17th century, even among the inhabitants of . the island, 
as to its correct name. 

An examination of contemporary literature of that period, 
printed books, letters, public records, legal documents, etc., 
confirms this curious fact; and as a result of an extended 
search the author feels safe in saying that in the public and 
private records of the 17th century, the name Martin'' s is ap- 
plied to the Vineyard, to the practical exclusion of Martha's, 
and this phenomenon has the repeated sanction of Mr. Thomas 
Mayhew himself, the Governor and ''Lord of the Isles," 
in public and private papers. Our first book of land records, 
kept by Mathew Mayhew as Register, has on the title page 
the statement that it is the Record of Lands "Upon Martin's 
or Martha's Vineyard," and doubtless this legend was en- 
grossed by the Register himself.^ With such eminent au- 
thority as the proprietor and his family in doubt as to the 
name of the territory they owned, it is small wonder that the 
general public elsewhere became mixed on the subject. 

That an island south of Cape Cod was called Marthaes 
Vineyard by someone connected with the expedition under 
command of the explorer Gosnold in 1602, is well known 
(3 Mass. Hist. Coll., VIII, 75), and it seems certain that it was 
applied to the small isle, now called Noman's Land, lying 
directly southwest from the Vineyard of to-day. That this 
cognomen was finally transferred to the present Martha's 
Vineyard seems equally certain; but that the name Martin'' s 
was used up to about 1 700, even by the residents of the Vine- 
yard, by local historians and cartographers, by public officials 
throughout New England and New York, must be accepted 
by the reader upon the array of authorities which follows. 
What gave rise to this confusion in the 17th century, for in 

'In most of the jurats on legal documents before 1700 Matthew Mayhew dodged 
the issue, and dated the acknowledgments at "Mart. Vineyard," which can be read 
either way. 

73 



History of Martha's Vineyard 



the next it was settled by the Colonial government of Massa- 
chusetts as "Martha," is not easily explained. Such a dif- 
ference of names, so long persisted in, must have had some 
substantial basis in fact, for it is not credible that accident or 
chance or mistake will account for all this mixture. 

The question naturally arises, who christened this small 
island "Martha's Vineyard?" Why should such an insig- 
nificant place as Noman's Land be marked by Gosnold him- 
self for distinction in honor of any female member of his 
family, especially when it was given only a temporary visit 
by members of his party? Naturally he would reserve such 
a mark of courtesy for the place he might select as an abode. 
Unfortunately, the theory advanced that some Martha Gosnold, 
mother, wife or daughter of the explorer, was so honored, 
fails of realization because a careful search among the females 
of this family at that period does not reveal a Martha in any 
remote generation, who could be available as the patroness of 
Noman's Land. If any Martha was thus complimented, she 
was not a Gosnold, and in view of the existing customs and 
observances of that period, it is doubtful if the name of any 
woman other than the sovereign or some princess, would be 
selected for such purposes in a semi-official expedition. 

In the following tables is appended a list of references to 
documents, etc., which show when, where and how the two 
names were used : 



Date. 

1638 
1642 

1643 
1644 
1647 
1647 
1647 
1648 
1648 
1649 
1650 
1651 
1651 
1651 
1651 
1652 
1654 
1654 



Author. 



"MARTIN'S" VINEYARD. 

Book or Document. 



Underbill, John Newes from America 

Lechford, Thomas Plaine Dealing 
Winthrop, John Journal 

Commissioners of United Colonies, Records 
Paine, Thomas Suffolk Deeds 

Mayhew, Thomas, Sr.Power of Atty. Aspinwall 
Davison, Nicholas Suffolk Deeds 
Mayhew, Thomas, Sr. Middlesex Deeds 



Winslow, Edward 
Winslow, Edward 
Williams, Roger 
Whitfield, Henry 
Bessey, Anthony 
Endicott, John 



Good News from New England 
Glorious Progress of Gospel, etc. 
Letter to John Winthrop, Jr. 
The Light Appearing 

L Letters of, in Further Progress of 

Allen, Rev": Thomas ) ^^^ ^^'P^^' ^^^• 

Butler, Nicholas Suffolk Deeds 

Johnson, Edward Wonder Working Providence 

Massachusetts Colonial Records 



Reference. 

passim. 
107 
ii. 151 
passim. 
i. 86 
III 
i.91 
ii. 17 



i. 196 
226 

iv. (i.: 



199. 



74 



What is the Correct Name of the Vineyard } 

Date. Author. Book of Document. Reference. 

1656 Johnson, New York Colonial Documents 1.565,^.134. 

1656 Deed, Thomas Burchard, Saybrook Deeds ii. 99 

1658 Plymouth Colony Records x. 209 

1659 Sufifolk Co. (Mass.) Prob. Records, G.R. x. 88 

1660 Nantucket Deeds, History of 20 
1660 Maverick, Samuel Description of New England 

1660 Folger, Peter Deed, in N. E. Hist. Gen. Reg. xii. 33 

1662 Plymouth Colony Records x. 275 

1663 Plymouth Colony Records x. 293 
1 1 64 Patent to Duke of York, 2 Maine Hist. Coll. iv. 191 

1665 Royal Commissioners, 2 Maine Hist. Coll. iv. 300 

1666 Mayhew, Thomas, Sr.York County Deeds iii. 161 

1666 [Eliot, Rev. John] Roxbury Church Records 

1667 New York Colonial Documents iii. 169 
1667 Plymouth Colony Records x. 330 

1669 Morton, Nathaniel New England Memorial 

1670 Norfolk Co. Records 

167 1 Commission of Thomas Mayhew as Governor 

issued by Lovelace 

1672 Plymouth Colony Records 

1674 Andros, Edmund Commission of, N.Y. Col. Doc. 

1675 Josselyn, John Two Voyages, etc 

1677 New York Colonial Documents 

1678 Hubbard, Rev. William History of New England 

1679 Plymouth Colony Records 

1 68 1 Plymouth Colony Records 

1682 Dongan, Thomas Commission of, N.Y. Col. Doc. 

1688 New York Colonial Documents 

1689 [E. R. and S. S.] Revolution in New England 

Justified 

1690 New York Colonial Documents 

1 69 1 New York Colonial Documents 

1692 Cadillac, M. de la Mothe i Maine Hist. Coll. 

1693 New York Colonial Documents 
1 701 Braintree Town Records 

It is also desirable that such books and documents as 
disclose the name "Martha's" should be cited, and they are 
herewith appended: 

"MARTHA'S" VINEYARD. 

Date. Author. - Book or Document. Reference. 

1610 Strachey, William Travaille into Virginia 

1641 Vines, Richard Hough's Nantucket Papers 4 

1663 Winthrop, John, Jr. 3 Mass. Hist. Coll. 

1678 Gookin, Daniel, et ah 2 Maine Hist. Coll. iv. 383 

1676 Sewall, Samuel Diary i. 26 
1689 Briefe Relation of the State of New England 19 

1692 Acts and Resolves of the Province of Mass. Bay 

1693 Phips, William New York Colonial Doc. iv. 6 
1696 Mayhew, Matthew Triumphs and Conquests of 

Grace, etc. 

75 



X. 


356 


iii. 


215 


?.57 


iii. 


248 


pa 


ssim. 


vi. 


48 


vi. 


65 


iii. 


328 


iii. 


552 


42 




iii. 


752 


iii. 


798 


vi. 


288 


iv. 


2, 8, 10 


P- 


742 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

The maps of the period are disappointing as a rule, but 
they give corroborative evidence in the same proportion as the 
documentary and printed authorities, viz: — 





Martinis. 




Martha's. 


1670 


Ogilby. 


1610 


[Brown, Genesis i. 475.] 


1675 


Seller. 


1624 


West Indische Spiegel. 


1677 


Hubbard. 


1626 


Speed. 




French (Mass. Arch. ii. 61). 


1671 


Novi Belgii, etc. 


1688 


Blome. 


1690 


Thornton. 


1702 


Mather. 







As to the probabiHty of evidence in favor of either name, 
the case for "Martin" must overcome the statement of John 
Brereton, the historian of Gosnold's voyage, that an island, 
Noman's Land, received in 1602 the title of "Marthaes Vine- 
yard." It is known that a Capt. John Martin v^^as with 
Gosnold in this voyage, who later figures as an associate of 
Gosnold in the early settlement of Virginia.* The suggestion 
that it was this companion's name, John Martin, which was 
intended to be honored by the baptism, may be entertained; 
as much so as Point Gilbert, which was named by him for 
Bartholomew Gilbert, another companion, and Tucker's 
, Terror, which he applied to a shoal or reef for another voyager. 
Brereton's relation is not above criticism, for many errors as 
to sailing courses, longitude and other kindred subjects, are 
to be found in his book. 

We have already noted the names of the island as given 
to it by various discoverers — Straumey by the Norsemen, 
Luisa by Verrazzano, La Soupgonneuse by Champlain, and 
Martha's Vineyard by Gosnold according to the accounts just 
given. To these must be added another bestowed on it by 
the Dutch voyagers, probably Block and Christiaensen. Their 
maps of 1 61 6 (Carte Figurative) and 1621 (West Indische 
Paskaert), show two names engraved: Texel on the western 
end and Vlieland on the eastern. These names appear later on 
Dudley's Arcano del Mare Map of 1646, the Novi Belgii of 
1671, and Blaeu's (1685), and for the last time Texel appears 
alone in 1695 on the jaillot map. It is probable that these 
early Dutch cartographers intended to apply Texel to the main 
island and Vlieland to Chappaquiddick, although the crude 
drawings could be interpreted so as to apply the latter name to 

^ Brown, The First Republic, 2;^^. He was son of Sir Richard Martin, Master of 
the Mint. 

76 



What is the Correct Name of the Vineyard? 

Nantucket. Texel and Vlieland are two contiguous islands 
off the Netherlands, forming a part of the chain known as 
the West Friesian Islands, which separates the North Sea 
from the Zuyder Zee, and the Dutch navigators were undoubt- 
edly reminded of the similarity of arrangement of the group 
composed of the islands south of Cape Cod. No attempt 
was made by the Dutch authorities when in power in New 
York to give official sanction to the name of Texel for our 
island. As a further curiosity in nomenclature we find " Maer- 
tens Wyngert" applied by Blome, a cartographer, in his map 
of 1688. This is a Dutchman's attempt to reduce Martin's 
Vineyard to his own tongue — Wyngert being a wine garden 
or Vineyard ! All this does not seem so absurd when we have 
seen our own people calling it indiscriminately Martin's and 
Martha's Vineyard, and if uncertainty prevailed among the 
residents, the outside world might well join in the confusion. 
But at length Martha, whoever she was, triumphed over them 
all, and for two centuries the Vineyard has had her name as 
a prefix unchallenged, and without a rival. 

CARTOGRAPHY OF THE VINEYARD. 

The maps and globes of Zeno (1400?), La Costa (1500), 
Ruysch (1508), Stobnicza (161 2), Portolano (1514-20), Thorne 
(1527), Verrazzano (1529), Orontius (1531), Munster (1540), 
Ulpius (1542), Cabot, Mappemonde (1542), Allefonsce (1543), 
Dauphin, Henry II (1546), Hohiem (1558), Ruscelli (1561), 
Zaltieri (1566), Porcacchi (1572), Gilbert (1576), Hakluyt- 
Martyr (1587), DeBry (1596), Linshoten (1598), Quadus 
(1600), Champlain (161 2), Joliet (1674), Franquelin (1684), 
Hennepin (1684), Lescarbot (1690), and Champlain (1632), 
do not show anything beyond nameless dots, which might pass 
for any of the islands to the south of New England. 

Claudia, or properly Luisa, appears in the Loks (1582) 
map as a triangular island to the south of Norumbega, having 
previously been indicated on the maps and the charts of 
Mercator (1569), Ortelius (1570), and Dees (1580). In the 
Molineaux Globe (1592) and map (1600) it appears as a 
point and dot respectively, and in the Botero map (1603) it is 
similarly reproduced. 

The voyage of Gosnold and the baptism of our island in 
t6o2 bore fruit in the next map, . chronologically speaking, 
that comes to our attention, the Simancas Map (so-called), 

77 



History of Martha's Vineyard \ 

a manuscript chart of the entire Atlantic coast of the present 
United States, made about the year 1610 in England, and pro- 
cured by ^ the Spanish Ambassador in London for his master 
Philip Second. It is the most elaborate and correct map of 
the regions delineated, and was doubtless based upon the 
voyages! of all the English explorers up to that date. Upon 
this map first appears our island with its present title, and 
although the small scale of the map precludes attention to 
topographical details, yet the reproduction of this region re- 
veals better drawing than is shown in maps of fifty and seventy- 
five years later. 



EARLIEST MAP OF REGION SHOWING MARTHA'S VINEYARD AND THE 
ELIZABETH ISLANDS. DATED l6lO.> 

(from the archives of SIMANCAS, SPAIN.) 

The Figurative Map (1614), a Dutch production, and 
the result of the active eftorts of the West India Company of 
Amsterdam in exploration, shows Nantucket, or Chappa- 
quiddick, and the Vineyard joined together as one island, and 
this arrangement is repeated in Dudley's Arcano del Mare 
(1646), and in Blaeu (1662 and 1685). Successive maps 
showing the Vineyard are in order of sequence, the West- 
Indische Paskaert (1621), Alexander (1624), — which is the map 
prepared for the Council for New England, and delineates the 
islands of this region, though without name, — Briggs (1625), 
shown in Purchas' Pilgrims, DeLaet (1630), Wood (1633), 
which only shows the Elizabeth Isles in the shape of a devil- 
fish, Jansson (1636), French map (1650), in the Massachu- 

'The island called "]Marthays Viniard" is the present Nomans Land, and the 
Vineyard proper may be noted just north of the later island. It is shown as a part 
of the main land, but the outlines are fairly delineated, and we can make out the 
Homes Hole of the first settlers, and the irregularities of South beach, a much better 
representation of the island than appears in later charts. The location of "Whitson's 
Bay" within Cape Cod on this map, makes it certain that Martin Pring, in his voyage 
of 1603, did not give that name to Edgartown harbor, as has been thought by some 
writers. 

78 



What is the Correct Name of the Vineyard? 

setts Archives, d'Abbeville (1656), Creuxius (1660), and not 
until we come to the map of Ogilby (1670) do we see the early 
name of the island resumed, although in this instance it ap- 
pears as "Martin's Vineyard." The Novi Belgii (167 1) 
adheres to the Dutch nomenclature adopted in the Figurative 
map (1614), and names it "Texel al. Elizabeth Eylant." In 
Blome's L'Amerique traduit de I'Anglois, published at Am- 
sterdam in 1688, a good representation of the island may be 
seen under the name of "Maerten's Wyngart," considerably 
better than the map which appeared in Hubbard's book on 
New England (1677), where it is called "Martin's Vineyard." 
The Rev. Cotton Mather's map in his "Magnalia Christi 
Americana," (1702), continues the "Martin's Vineyard" of 
his predecessors, notwithstanding the gradual evolution of 
Martin into Martha during the previous decade. 

The map of Cyprian Southack (1714) is worthy of note 
as a distinct advance in the features relating to soundings and 
sailing directions, and he first shows the peculiar tides and 
shoals about the Vineyard Sound and Nantucket, noting 
churches on the island. But by far the finest map of the 
Vineyard is the large one executed under the direction of 
Mr. J. F. W. Des Barres, and published in his "Atlantic 
Neptune," 1781, accompanied with views of Gay Head, 
Noman's Land and Cape Poag. In the English edition of 
"Lettres d'un Cultivateur Americain, par Hector St. Jean de 
Crevecoeur," (London, 1782), may be found a map of the 
Vineyard, shown on the opposite page. In the state archives 
of Massachusetts can be seen two surveys, covering the entire 
island, made in 1795, by order of the General Court, one em- 
bracing Edgartown and Tisbury, and the other Chilmark and 
Gay Head. 



flcnti called 

THE MARGINAI, TEXT IN "brERETON'S RELATION, 

showing first use of name, 
"marthaes vineyard," 

1602. 



79 



History of Martha's Vineyard 



CHAPTER V. 
Purchase 'of Martha's Vineyard by Mayhew. 

In 1640 the Earl of Stirling was Secretary of State for 
Scotland under Charles I, and being high in the councils of 
the kingdom he had excellent opportunities for exploiting his 
share in the division of the territory of the New England 
Council. This he undertook to do, and took into his employ 
Mr. James Forrett, whom he sent over to act as his agent on 
the premises. Forrett evidently made his headquarters in 
New Amsterdam, where he could be near the most valuable 
of Lord Stirling's property. Long Island. In September, 1641, 
Forrett appeared in Boston to remonstrate with Governor 
Winthrop about the unwarranted entry of some people of 
Lynn upon the lands of Lord Stirling on Long Island, and to 
assert his title thereto. Incidentally he was there to encourage 
further migration thither under proper acknowledgment of 
proprietary rights, and this he succeeded in doing. While on 
this business he met, perhaps by chance, Mr. Thomas Mayhew 
of Watertown, who was then in the depths of financial troubles, 
and it is presumed laid before him the desirability of seeking 
his fortune elsewhere. He represented, possibly and probably, 
in glowing terms the advantages of colonizing the unsettled 
islands of Nantucket and Martin's Vineyard, which he claimed 
as part of his master's domain. Whether Mayhew had ever 
seen these islands may be doubted, and in the despair of mind 
due to business troubles, as it had "pleased God to frown 
upon him in his outward estate," he accepted this opportunity 
of restoring his fortunes and beginning again under different 
conditions. Such may be the process by which Mayhew's 
attention was brought to these distant isles of the sea, ''as 
yet uninhabited" wrote Underbill several years before, and 
the elder Mayhew, then in his fiftieth year, determined to 
purchase them and start a new home, perhaps found a new 
colony, for they were situated without the lawful bounds of 
the territory of the Massachusetts Bay. 

Meanwhile, however, an unexpected development oc- 
curred. "Mr. Richard Vynes," wrote Mayhew, "Steward 
Gen'll to Sir Ferdynando Gorges, heareing of it, Enterupted 
showing me his Master's Pattent and his Power, insomuch 

80 




WILLIAM ALEXANDER, EARL OF vSTIRLING 
1567-1640 



Purchase of Martha's Vineyard by Mayhew 

that I was convinced by him and Thomas Gorges who was 
then Governour of the Province of Maine that [it] was realy 
Sir Ferdynandoes Right." * It somewhat arouses our curiosity 
to know how Vines, — Hving a hundred miles distant, should 
have become aware within a few days of the sale by Forrett 
to Mayhew, unless we infer, as we are justified in doing by 
the light of subsequent events, that Mayhew was not satisfied 
with the title of Lord Stirling, and desiring to satisfy all pos- 
sible claimants and secure deeds from each, asked Vines to 
come to Watertown to effect the transfer of his master's right.* 
However, Mayhew says that Vines "heareing of it, Enter- 
rupted," which would indicate that the agent of Gorges acted 
independently upon learning of the action of Forrett, and 
Mayhew, in order to secure himself, as he says, "for a some 
of Money did obtaine from said Vynes a Graunt alsoe." 
Again he wrote on the same topic: ''Meeteing with Mr. Vynes 
steward general to Sir Ferdinando Gorges whom I then had 
much interest in he solemnely p'fesses it was his Masters so 
whereuppon I had it graunted by him & did p'cede mostly 
uppon that graunt, Mr. Tho. Gorges then gov'nor [of the 
Province of Maine] approuveing of it." ^ 

So far there has been no evidence disclosed that this 
purchase had any other than a purely business aspect, and in 
all the various statements made by the Governor about this 
transaction nothing is claimed by him as to a philanthropic 
plan of Christianizing the Indians. In a petition forty years 
after this for certain privileges, Matthew Mayhew gives us 
the only explanation we have for the purchase of the island 
by his father and grandfather. He stated that "nothing but 
the largeness of the grant that could induce [them] to essay 
the settlement of the said Hand, in hopes to obtain that 
gradually of the heathen which could not att once by any 
means be procured." The offer made was in the nature of a 
"bargain," and Mayhew concluded to accept. Accordingly, 
he entered into an agreement with Stirling's agent for the 
purchase of Nantucket, and on Oct. 13, 1641, the deed of 
sale was executed, granting to Thomas Mayhew of Water- 
town, merchant, and to Thomas Mayhew, his son, the right 
"to Plant and Inhabit upon Nantuckett and two other small 

•N. Y. Col. Mss., XXIV, 92. 

^For the authority of Forrett see Doc. Hist, of N. Y., Ill, 22. Soon after the 
death of the Earl in February, 1 640-1, his agency ceased. 
^Col. Papers, P. R. O., XXI, 93. 

81 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

Islands adjacent," meaning Muskeget and Tuckernuck. 
The price paid, £/\.o, is not stated in the document,^ which 
is here printed in full : — 

These presents doth witness that I, James Forrett, Gentleman, who 
was sent over into these Parts of America By the honourable the Lord 
Sterling with a commission for the ordering and Disposing of all the Island 
that Lyeth Between Cape Cod hudsons river and hath better unto confirmed 
his agency without any consideration, Do hereby Grant unto Thomas 
Mayhew of Watertown, merchant, and to Thomas Mayhew his son, free 
Liberty and full power to them and their associates to Plant and inhabit 
upon Nantuckett and two other small Islands adjacent, and to enjoy the 
said Islands to them their heirs & assigns forever, provided that the said 
Thomas Mayhew and Thomas Mayhew his son or either of them or their 
associates Do Render and Pay yearly unto the honourable the Lord Sterling, 
his heirs or assigns such an acknowledgement as shall be thought fitt by 
John Winthrop, Esq, the elder or any two magistrates in Massachusetts 
Bay Being chosen for that end and purpose by the honourable the Lord 
Sterling or his Deputy and By the said Thomas Mayhew his son or associ- 
ates: it is agreed that the government that the said Thomas Mayhew and 
Thomas Mayhew his son and their associates shall set up shall Be such as 
is now established in the Massachusetts aforesaid, and that the said Thomas 
Mayhew & Thomas Mayhew his son and their associates shall have as 
much privilege touching their planting Inhabiting and enjoying of all and 
evry part of the Premises as By the patent is granted to the Patent of the 
Massachusetts aforesaid and their associates. 

In witness hereof I the said James Forrett have hereunto sett my hand 
and seal this 13th Day of October, 1641. 

JAMES FORRETT. 
Signed Sealed and Delivered in the presence of 

Robert 

Nicholas Davison^ 
Richard Stileman ^ 

This resulted, doubtless, in a conference between the 
conflicting interests, and as a consequence further amplifi- 
cation of Mayhew's territorial jurisdiction. Forrett added 
"Martin's" Vineyard and the Elizabeth Islands, in a second 
instrument which he drew up, and authorized the grantees 
to plant upon and inhabit those parts, as follows : — * 

Whereas By virtue of a commission from the Lord Sterling, James 
Forrett, Gentleman, hath granted Liberty and full Power unto Thomas 
Mayhew of Watertown, merchant, and Thomas Mayhew his son, and their 

'Edgartown Records, I, 12. 

^Nicholas Davison was a Charlestovvn merchant, agent of Matthew Cradock, 
and later a land-owner on the Vineyard, but not a resident. 

•'Richard Stileman was of Cambridge at this date, but later removed to Ports- 
mouth. It is probable that this document was executed in Boston. 

^Edgartown Records, I, 11. 
a 

82 



Purchase of Martha's Vineyard by Mayhew 

associates to Plant the Island of Nantucket according to the article In a 
deed to that purpose expressed: Now for as much as the said Island hath 
not Been yett whole surrendered whereby it may appear that Comfortable 
accomodations for themselves and their associates will be found there, this 
therefore shall serve to testifye that I, the said James Forrett, by virtue of 
my said commission, Do hereby grant unto the said Thomas Mayhew and 
Thomas Mayhew his son and their associates, as much to plant upon 
Martins Vinyard and Elizabeth Isles as they have by virtue heretofore of 
the Deed granted unto them for Nantuckett as therein plainly In all con- 
siderations Both on the Right honourable the Lord Sterling's part and on 
the said Thomas Mayhew & Thomas Mayhew his son and their associates 
Doth appear In Witness whereof I, the said James Forrett have hereunto 
sett my hand the 23rd Day of October, Annoque Domini 1641. 

JAMES FORRETT. 
Signed and delivered In Presence of us 

his 

John X Vahane.^ 

mark 

Garret Church.^ 

But this was not entirely satisfactory, and so he con- 
cluded to "make assurance doubly sure" by securing the 
rights as well from the Gorges interests; and two days later 
the following instrument, executed by Vines, authorized the 
elder Mayhew to "plant and inhabit upon the Island Capa- 
wok alias Martins Vineyard," as set forth in the following 
copy : — ^ 

I, Richard Vines of Saco, Gentleman, Steward General for Sir Ferdi- 
nando Gorges, Knight and Lord Proprietor of the Province of Maine and 
the Islands of Cappawok and Nautican, Do by these presents give full 
power and authority unto Thomas Mayhew, Gentleman, his agents and 
associates to plant and Inhabit upon the Islands Capawok alias Martins 
Vinyard with all privileges and Rights thereunto belonging to enjoy the 
premises to himself heirs and associates forever, yielding and Paying unto 
the said Ferdinando Gorges, his heirs and assigns annually, or two Gentle- 
men Independently By each of them chosen Shall Judge to Be meet by way 
of ackrvowledgement. 

Given under my hand this 25th Day of October, 1641. 

RICHARD VINES. 

Witness: 
Thomas Payne * 
Robert Long.'' 

^John Vahane (Vaughan) was a resident of Watertown in 1633, ^"^d bore a not 
very savory reputation for a number of years. 

^Garret Church was also of Watertown. From the appearance of these two 
names, it is presumed the document was signed in Mayhew's home town. 

^Edgartown Records, I, 9. 

^There was a Thomas Paine, resident of Salem, another resident of Dedham, 
and a third of Yarmouth. It is not possible to identify this witness. It was not 
Mayhew's step-son, as he was only nine years old. 

^Robert Long was a resident of Charlestown. 

83 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

Armed with these three documents the elder Mayhew 
was doubly assured of his title to the islands from two sources, 
and there yet remained, according to his view, one more 
party to satisfy — the aboriginal owners; "and forthwith," 
he writes, "I Endeavoured to obtain the Indian right of them." 
This of course, necessitated a visit to the islands, and it is to 
be presumed that he made the journey with his son, and 
possibly others interested in the new territory, and secured 
the required release. We may consider that his first visit to 
the island, which was to become his home for the remainder 
of his life, was made some time prior to Dec. i, 1642, when 
he had already selected his own home lot and granted^another 
to John Daggett on "the point next to my lot." ^ 



Cupc Cod. 




MARTHA'S VINEYARD, NANTUCKET AND ELIZABETH ISLANDS. 

[map of council for new ENGLAND.] 
1624'' 

Mayhew, with this island domain now under his control, 
began to consider plans for colonization and settlement. 
Watertown neighbors became interested at the first, and on 
the i6th of March following (1641-2), he made a grant to 
five of them "to make choice for the Present of a large Towne" 
with authority equal to that of the proprietors in admitting 
subsequent inhabitants, and also a future grant of "another 
Townshipp for Posterity."^ These five associates were John 
Daggett, Daniel Pierce, Richard Beers, John Smith, and 
Francis Smith. Of these only John Daggett took up his 

^Dukes Deeds, I, 189. 

^This map was probably used by Mayhew and Forrett to show the location of 
the territory purchased by the former. It was the only English map of the region 
available at that date to show the island. Wood's map of 1633 had no representation 
of the Vineyard or Nantucket, and only a shapeless delineation of what he called 
" Elizabeths lie." 

^Dukes Deeds, VIII, 83. 

84 



Purchase of Martha's Vineyard by Mayhew 

share in this first grant from the two INIayhews, and as he will 
be considered later as one of the first settlers, we may take a 
momentary glance at the others who joined with Mayhew in 
his venture. Daniel Pierce was a proprietor of Watertown 
in 1637 and a freeman in 1638. He removed later to New- 
bur} . Capt. Richard Beers was one of the original proprietors 
of Watertown/ He was killed by the Indians Sept. 4, 1675. 
Francis Smith was a freeman in 1631, and he became a pro- 
prietor of Watertown in 1637. He removed to Reading and 
died there in 165 1. It is not sure to claim identification 
of the John Smith who is the last of the five. He had been 
a resident of Watertown for a number of years, and there is 
more than a possibility that he was the person who had used 
this name as an alias and when he came to the Vineyard 
resumed his proper family name, John Bland. John Smith 
of Watertown became a freeman in 1636, having previously 
resided in that place for the five preceding years. His wife 
Isabel died in 1639, and thenceforth he disappears from the 
records. The evidence bearing on this is considered more 
at length under the sketch of John Bland, one of the early 
settlers. 

Whether any Englishman settled even temporarily on 
Martha's Vineyard before the Mayhews came is not now 
known, and Thomas Lechford, who was personally acquainted 
with Mayhew and who sailed for England in August, 1641, 
wrote in his descriptive work on New England, published 
the following year, that "Eastward of Cape Codd lyeth an 
Island called Martin's Vineyard uninhabited by any English." ^ 
Two months after Lechford sailed Mayhew consummated his 
two purchases of the agents of Gorges and Stirling, and if 
Lechford is to be received as a good witness, the Vineyard 
was "uninhabited by any English," at the time he left the 
country in the summer of 1641. 

The next question that confronts us is the one relating 
to the date of the first settlement under the purchase just 
consummated. The Rev. Experience Mayhew writes as fol- 
lows: "In 1642 he [Thomas Mayhew] sends Mr. Thomas 
Mayhew Junior his only Son, being then a young Scholer, 
about 21 years of Age, with some other Persons to the 
Vineyard, where they settled at the East End, and quickly 

*"He was one I loved much" wrote Mavhew in later vears (4 Mass. Hist. Coll., 
VII, 42). 

^Plaine Dealing, 107. 

85 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

after the Father followed."* Again he says: "This person 
(Towanquatack) was the Chief Sachim of the East End of 
Marthas Vineyard, where the English first settled in the yeare 
1642."^ It is within the probabilities that the younger ■Slayhew 
made one or more visits of reconnoisance to the island 
perhaps with friends who later joined his colony, and 
that he and they made preliminary explorations to choose a 
site for the town, and to arrange a modus vivendi with the 
savages. 

But the most competent witness on this subject is Gov- 
ernor Winthrop, whose invaluable "Journal" of the begin- 
nings of the Massachusetts Bay settlements down to his death, 
is, next to the public records, the most unimpeachable au- 
thority of the times he treats. His book is almost a diary of 
events under his personal observation or knowledge, and he 
records the most trivial as well as the most pregnant circum- 
stances with impartial hand. It has stood the test of com- 
parison as to times, places, persons, and events, with the offi- 
cial records bearing upon them, and has merited the credence 
universally accorded it by historians. Following a previous 
entry in his "Journal" of the date of Dec. 3, 1643, and before 
an entry dated "18 Jan 164!," Winthrop states that "some 
of Watertown began a plantation at Martin's Vineyard beyond 
Cape Cod, divers families going thither."^ It is hardly to 
be supposed, however, that this entry represents the exact 
date as to month and day, nor that the colonists went in the 
winter months. The inference which may be drawn is that 
the first of the colonists, "divers families," had gone by the 
time Winthrop made the above entry. He knew every move- 
ment of this sort in the colony of which he was governor, 
and was in the habit of entering anything worthy of notice 
at the tim.e it occurred. The departure of "divers families" 
for Martha's Vineyard was an event of some importance, 
and is so recorded by him. 

Gookin, writing in 1674, says that the elder Mayhew 
"about the year 1642 transplanted himself to Marthas Vine- 
yard with his famiily,"^ but this statement, general in its char- 
acter, thirty-two years after the event, does not outweigh the 
evidence of the records that the elder Mayhew, in the late 

^Indian Converts, 280. 
^Indian Converts, 80. 
^Journal, II, 152. 
"i Mass. Hist. Coll., I, 201. 

86 



Purchase of Martha's Vineyard by Mayhew 

fall of 1642, was chosen first in the list of selectmen at Water- 
town and "ordered to make the rates." 

In another place, when relating the early life of Thomas 
Mayhew, Sr., before his removal to the Vineyard, his move- 
ments are traced sufficiently to show that he did not himself 
remove here until four years after his purchase. But it is 
evident from all the surrounding circumstances that the young 
Thomas took posession of the island about 1642, and with a 
few associates formed the vanguard of English settlers who 
first established the white man's supremacy here under the 
laws of the kingdom of England. It was a hazardous and 
a lonesome task for these few pioneers, cut off from com- 
munication with the distant settlements of the main. At 
this period there were probably not less than three thousand 
Indians on the islands, and it is doubtful if there were three 
dozen whites at the new settlement for ten years following its 
purchase. It was a delicate situation, as a contemporary 
author, writin^^ 1641, stated, that the Indians of Nope were 
''very sava^e^* The memory of the battles of Champlain 
in 1606 with their tribesmen on the Cape, of the kidnapping 
of a score of them in 1 614 by Captain Hunt, including Epenow 
of their own people, the battles with Captain Chalownes and 
Captain Dermer (1619), as a consequence, were still fresh in 
their minds, and the natives of the Vineyard looked askance 
at this promised renewal of trouble with the "pale faces." 
The chief men and powwaws held aloof from the little band 
who had dropped anchor inside of Chappaquiddick and landed 
on the shore of Nunnepoag, and they influenced their subjects 
to maintain the same attitude. Apparently there was no in- 
tercourse between the settlers and the natives, until Hia- 
coomes, of one of the Nunnepoag families, who lived near to 
the newly-erected settlement, began to show signs of famili- 
arity with the whites in 1643, after they had visited him in 
his wigAvam. "His Descent was but mean" according to 
an authority, "his Speech but slow and his Countenance not 
very promising. He was therefore by the Indian Sachims 
and others of their principal Men, looked on as but a mean 
Person, scarce worthy of their Notice or Regard."^ Not- 
withstanding this inferiority according to their social stand- 
ards, the leading chiefs and medicine men observed his con- 
tinued association with the settlers, and they were "much 



^Lechford, "Plaine Dealing," etc., 107. 
^Mayhew, Indian Converts, p. i. 



87 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

alarmed at it: and some of them endeavoured with all their 
Might to discourage him from holding Communications with 
the English.''^ In the following year, "Hiacoomes going to 
an Indiaii's House, where there were several Indians met 
together, they laughed and scoffed at him, saying, Here comes 
the English Man." Whereupon, the great Sagamore of 
Chappaquiddick, Pahkepunnassoo, who was present de- 
livered this warning to the butt of their jests: — "I wonder 
that you that are a young Man, and have a Wife and two 
children, should love the English and their Ways, and forsake 
the Pawwaws. . . . If I were in your Case there should nothing 
draw me from our Gods and Pawwaws." ^ But the peaceable 
intentions of the English were in time made clear to the sus- 
picious savages, and under the leadership and influence of 
the high-minded youth who came hither ready to be their 
benefactor, the natives ceased to be a menace, and ever after 
the two races lived in unusual harmony. 

'Mayhew, Indian Converts, 4. The personal names of Indians were complex 
and difficult of translation. Pahke-pun-asu means "he abides or walks uprightly," 
or "he is honorable." 




ARMS OF SIR FERDINANDO GORGES. 



38 



The Legendary Settlement Before 1642 



CHAPTER VI. 

The Legendary Settlement Before 1642. 

It becomes necessary at this point to enter, somewhat at 
length, into the consideration of the legendary account of a 
settlement on the island prior to the arrival of the Mayhews. 
This story, which, if true, upsets the plain historical evidences 
of original ownership and occupation immediately following 
the purchase from Vines and Forrett, and imposes on us the 
necessity of discarding it either as unworthy of serious thought 
or of accepting it as true in fact as well as fancy. Like all 
traditions it is entitled to an impartial investigation, a careful 
examination of all collateral facts bearing upon the points 
raised, and some kind of a judgment passed upon the case 
as made up from the material evidence. It has all the un- 
satisfactory qualities of a tradition, as well as all of the attrac- 
tive ingredients of one. It is based upon nothing but hearsay, 
and yet is of a circumstantial detail easily calculated to inspire 
our credulity and engage our assent. It may be stated from 
an historical standpoint that all traditions are to be disbe- 
lieved, and the burden of proof placed upon the propounders, 
where it belongs, according to all the rules of evidence. One 
corroborating fact gives a tradition a standing in court, and 
each succeeding one removes it from the doubtful list of 
pleasing legends. 

The story to be considered is to the effect that John 
Pease and some companions landed on the Vineyard and 
effected a permanent settlement before the purchase by the 
Mayhews, and in order that the claims may be fairly placed 
before the reader, a verbatim copy of the legend as prepared 
by the late Richard L. Pease, in August, 1857, is here inserted: — 

The ship in which John Pease came was bound to Port Penn, in the 
Delaware, with 140 persons on board; it was in the fall of the year, and 
they were short of provisions, and sickness prevailed. Owing to a head 
westerly wind they came to anchor near Stony Point. They landed in a 
boat at Pease's Point. The Indians came to meet them, holding forth a 
pine bough to denote their desire for peace. As the whites advanced, the 
Indians retreated. John Pease, who had on a red coat, took it off, laid it 
on the ground and made signs for the Sachem to put it on. The Indians 
approached it with caution, poking it with a stick, until gathering courage 

89 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

• 

the chief put it on, when Pease by signs give him to understand that he gave 
it to him. 

A good understanding being thus effected, the Indians led Pease and 
his companions to the cove, near where Mr. Zachariah Pease lived for many- 
years, and showed them how they procured fish. From thence they went 
to their herring fishing at Mattakeeset. The old creek, the natural outlet 
of the Great Pond, which at that time existed has for many years been 
swallowed up by the encroaching sea. They then went to the Green Hol- 
low, beyond the old Burial Ground, where the Indians obtained both fish 
and fowl. In this Hollow they dug caves — the places are still plainly seen 
on the North side of the Hollow — and spent the winter. Tradition says 
jour men remained. The vessel proceeded on her voyage. 

In the spring they went to the Great Marshes (Sandwich or Plymouth) 
and spent some time, returning to the Vineyard to winter. The next season 
they again sought the mainland and took to themselves wives. 

This story was written out fifty years ago, as told to him 
by the late Capt. Valentine Pease (born 1764). From another 
source, Rev. David Pease (born 1783), Mr. R. L. Pease was 
given the same story as told by the widow Susannah (Butler) 
Pease (born 1777), w^ho "had heard the story from a very 
aged person of your family." This account will be quoted 
later on in the course of this chapter. It is also stated by other 
members of the Pease family as part of the story, that Obed 
Pease (born 1743) had talked about a "black book," which 
mysteriously disappeared in the early days and is supposed 
to have contained some records bearing upon this question. 
But of this collateral topic consideration will be given later. 
It will thus be seen that the legend is one which has its sup- 
port and origin, probably, among members of the family 
bearing this name, and unfortunately too, for it thus acquires 
the coloring of family sentiment and pride in a matter which 
depends so much upon impartial support for its acceptance. 
It may be said however that, if true, the descendants of John 
Pease would be quite as likely as any others to be more fam- 
iliar with the story. 

The tradition became public property a century ago, in 
the year 1807, as a result of a visit of the late Rev. James 
Freeman to the island in search of facts and material to aid 
him in preparing "A Description of Dukes County," which 
he subsequently published in the collections of the Massa- 
chusetts Historical Society. Dr. Freeman was largely aided 
in the preparation of his sketch by the Rev. Joseph Thaxter 
of Edgartown, both in personal conversation and by letter. 
The following is the printed version of the story of the Pease 
landing which he obtained at that date : — 

90 



The Legendary Settlement Before 1642. 

A DESCRIPTION OF DUKES COUNTY. 

At the beginning of the year 1623, however, the people of Plymouth 
received information that the Indians of Marthas Vineyard and others had 
joined in a conspiracy with those of Massachusetts to extirpate the EngHsh. 
But the principal conspirators at Massachusetts being slain, such a terrour 
was struck into the minds of the other Indians, that they forebore to execute 
any act of hostility. 

Afterwards, in what year is unknown, but before the arrival of Thomas 
Mayhew, eight or ten English families settled in Edgartown. They first 
landed at Pease's Point, which is part of Starbuck's Neck. The ship in 
which they came was bound for Virginia, but fell by accident into this port; 
and being short of provisions these families preferred remaining and taking 
their chance with the Indians, to proceeding on the voyage. Four of their 
names have been handed down to us, — Pease, Vincent, Norton, and Trapp, 
the three former of which still remain on the Island. They landed late in the 
autumn, and were supplied during the first winter with fish and corn by the 
Indians. These hospitable natives led them to Great Pond, and showed 
them their manner of taking fish, which was as follows: A passage was 
opened from the sea into the Pond and through it the fish entered. There 
are many coves in this pond. At the entrance of the coves, the Indians 
placed hurdles under water, in a horizontal position; and when the fish had 
run over them into the coves, they went in their canoes, lifted the hurdles 
upright, by means they prevented the escape of the fish, and with their 
spears struck them in the mud. This event has been preserved by tradition 
both among the natives and the whites; but has not before appeared in any 
printed book. 

Another account of about the same period appears in a 
book of "Travels," wi'itten by one of the many persons who 
prepared similar books for the market to satisfy a growing 
interest in the new nation : — ^ 

In the fall of 1632, or a year or two later, a vessel bound from England 
to South Virginia, fell in with the South Shoal of Nantucket, came up 
through the Vineyard Sound and anchored off Cape Poge on account of a 
distemper which, like a plague, raged among the passengers and crew, 
twenty-five of whom died. Or according to another account, scarcity of 
provisions was the cause. Four men with their families, requested to be 
put ashore, preferring to take their chance with the natives, than to pursue 
the voyage under such distressing circumstances. They landed at the spot 
since called (Pease' Point) Edgartown. Their names were John Pease, 

Thomas Vincent, Trapp and Browning or Norton. 

A red coat, presented on landing, by Pease, to the Chief or Sachem, secured 
at once the good ofiices of the tribe, and they were treated with hospitality. 

In order to shelter themselves from the approaching winter, Pease and 
his company made excavations in the side of a hill near the water, whence 
they could command a full view of the harbor and adjacent bay. Some 
vestiges of these caves still remain. They remained here through the cold 
season, and were joined by others at different times, until in 1642 the whole 
number of families amounted to 24. At this period the Mayhews arrived. 

^Kendall, "Travels in the United States," 1807. 

91 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

In order that all the points bearing upon the subject may- 
be stated, a letter from Rev. Mr. Thaxter to Rev. Dr. Free- 
man under date of Dec. 12, 1814, is reproduced in amplifi- 
cation of some other details, and including arguments offered 
in support of the story as related at that time. 

The account which I gave you of the gathering of the church in this 
town, was taken from either a preface or an appendix to a sermon preached 
at the ordination of Mr. Newman, by Mr. Experience Mayhew, and is 
probably correct. I have searched the records of the town: they are tran- 
scribed from a former record, and go no further back than 1661. It is said 
that the old record was, for reasons now unknown, destroyed. It is beyond 
a doubt true that several years before the Mayhews had a grant of Martha's 
Vineyard there were a number of families settled on the island, of which 
I gave you the traditionary accounts. I am confirmed in this by the division 
of the town: The Mayhews and their associates had twenty-five shares: 
the others were called half-share men: and made the number of shares 
forty-two. These half-share men, it is presumed, were settled here when 
the Mayhews obtained the grant. It is highly probable that the Mayhews, 
at least the younger, had been on the Island some time before the grant was 
obtained. He was a zealous preacher and undoubtedly collected a church 
in 1641. Experience Mayhew must have had evidence of the fact; other- 
wise, it is presumed he would not have said it. 

Further, as showing the amplification of the tradition in 
detail, as time progressed, the following statement prepared 
in recent years by the late Hebron Vincent represents the 
complete picture of the legendary settlements : — 

The account given to the writer nearly seventy years ago by some of 
the then oldest inhabitants, who themselves received it from an immediate 
ancestry, is substantially as follows: — That some years preceding the May- 
hew purchase, the exact time not averred, but thought to have been from 
seven to ten years, a vessel from England filled with passengers, bound west 
and south, came to anchor, for some cause, in or near the outer harbor of 
what is now Edgartown; that a boat's company — mostly passengers — at- 
tempted a landing at what is known as " Starbuck's Neck" near the present 
site of that town; that a large company of Indians with their Chief appeared 
upon the bank, apparently peaceful, but supicious, to whom the men of the 
boat made signs of friendship to secure their confidence; that one of the 
company, John Pease, having been in the military service in England, and 
having with him his red coat, made signs to the chief an offer of the coat as 
a present, which after various manifestations of fear and of hesitation, was 
accepted, and that after some unsuccessful attempts at putting it on 
aright, it was properly adjusted by the white man, and the Indians set 
up a great shout. The further account is that such was the honor shown 
and the distinction accorded to the head man, and such the kindly feeling 
inspired, the Chief or Sachem, in whom the titles of the Indian lands vested, 
so far as the natives had any titles, gave to John Pease and others a large 
section of land, including the site on which Edgartown is built; that there- 
upon four of the passengers — Pease, Vinson, Trapp and Browning — decided 

92 



The Legendary Settlement Before 1642 

to discontinue their voyage, and risk the fortunes of life here; that these four 
men prepared caves in which to winter, about half a mile south of the present 
town, at a place called "Green Hollow," traces of which remain yet visible. 
It was further said that some other men came soon after who were allowed 
to share in the division of the section given by the Chief; that John Pease was 
a man of some education, kept a record of the settlement and of the division 
of lands in a book called the "Black Book," from the color of the cover; that 
subsequently to the purchase by the Mayhews, the division above named 
and this book which perpetuated the evidence of it, became an annoyance 
and an embarrassment, and that when John Pease died in 1674 and was 
lying dead in his house, two men came to the house of the deceased, and 
desired of the man in charge to be allowed to see this book; that he compHed 
— placing the book upon the table — and withdrew to attend to other duties, 
and that upon his return to the room the two men were gone and the book 
was also gone, the latter never having been seen by the public since; that 
the record evidence of whatever title to the land they had in the way related 
being burned — as was supposed — or as some believed abstracted for a pur- 
pose, and their chief man being dead, those early settlers found themselves 
deprived of their rights — such as they were — the rights under the Crown 
being held to control any others, however acquired, and that hence the 
settlement of claims could go no further back than the dates of the purchase 
by Thomas Mayhew and his son Thomas.^ 

One other relation of the narrative by a contemporary 
of these persons will suffice to disclose the legend in all its 
forms and complete its lineage. This story also comes from 
Pease sources, but is told by Susannah (Butler) Pease (born 
1777), the wife of Timothy Pease (i 769-1846), and it is fair 
to say that she obtained her version from her husband's family. 
It has the merit of brevity, and varies some as to the reasons 
for the settlement as told by her : — 

John Pease and company came into martha's Vineyard sound in the 
winter, got frozen in and was obliged to remain there until spring. Made 
friends with the Indians by presenting the Indian Chief with his red coat. 
The Chief in return gave him a deed of what afterwards became Edgartown. 
In the spring Pease left the Island and was gone some time (Mrs. Pease 
thought to England), but finally returned with family and made the place 
his home. After Mayhew came there the "black book" was lost, and Pease 
lost the title to his land. 

It now remains for us to consider the subject in all its 
bearings in the light of contemporary history, as to the internal 
evidence, together with the inherent probability of the story 
with its variations and embellishments. This will best be 
done by taking up the discussion in accordance with this 
method. 

*Rev. Hebron Vincent was born Aug. 21, 1805, and died Feb. 13, 1890. The 
account was probably prepared not long before his death, as seventy years would 
carry him back to 1820, when he was fifteen years old. He was son of Samuel and 
Betsey (Pease) Vincent, and thus of Pease ancestry. 

93 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

IN THE LIGHT OF HISTORY. 

I. Contemporary historians are silent upon the subject 
of the alleged settlement. Governor Winthrop, in his history 
of New England written in journal form from time to time 
as events occurred before his death in 1649, makes no men- 
tion of such an incident, and he omitted no detail of any 
importance concerning such matters. He records the de- 
parture of the Mayhews "to begin a plantation at Martin's 
Vineyard," but nothing else as to any prior occupation. The 
distinguished voyager, Capt. William Pierce, sailed along the 
sound in 1634 and reported his observations to Winthrop 
without any reference to settlers living on the Vineyard. He 
stated that "Nantucket is an island full of Indians." 

II. John Underhill in his "Newes from America," pub- 
lished in 1638, says of Martin's Vineyard that it was "as yet 
uninhabited." 

III. Thomas Lechford, in his book on New England, 
written in Boston probably before the summer of 1641, when 
he left for England, and which was published in 1642, states 
that Martin's Vineyard was then "uninhabited by any Eng- 
lish, but Indians." 

IV. Daniel Gookin, the early historian of the Indians 
of New England, writing in 1671 about the Vineyard and the 
younger Mayhew says: "he was as I take it the first Eng- 
lishman that settled that Island." 

As far as can be ascertained from persons living at that 
time who vn:ote anything at all on the subject, no one lends 
any support to the story of a band of persons living on the 
Vineyard prior to 1642, when the younger Mayhew came 
hither with "divers families" from Watertown. This is in 
the nature of negative evidence, but it is none the less ap- 
plicable in the requirements of proving a negative. 

THE INTERNAL EVIDENCE. 

If any statements in the story are manifestly improbable, 
the entire legend becomes open to suspicion. To ascertain 
if this be the case, it will be necessary to take up the various 
parts of it where corroboration can be had or refutation ac- 
complished. 

I. It is stated in one account that the ship bearing this 
company was bound for Port Penn on the Delaware. There 

94 



The Legendary Settlement Before 1642 

was no such place as Port Penn in existence at tliat date nor 
for many years after. William Penn, for whom Port Penn 
was named, did not arrive in this country till 1682, and while 
this objection is not fatal, it seriously discredits it at the start. 
It may be that the place where Port Penn later arose is in- 
tended in the narrative. 

II. The persons said to have landed were John Pease, 
(William) Vincent, (Nicholas) Norton and (Thomas) Trapp; 
in another version Malachi Browning appears in the place of 
Norton. If either of these persons can be located elsewhere 
in 1630 or 1632 and before 1641 or 1642, the story must be 
seriously compromised. This will now be considered: — 

(a) John Pease. Under the title of Sketches of the 
Early Settlers (Edgartown) the identity of John Pease of 
Martha's Vineyard and Salem, Mass., is considered, and in 
order to prevent unnecessary repetition a recital of this will not 
be made here. Briefly stated, a John Pease was a passenger 
on the ship "Francis" sailing from Ipswich, England, in Nov- 
ember, 1634, with a cabin list of eighty-three persons, and a 
John Pease with a brother Robert and a widow Margaret 
Pease, all names in the Great Baddow, Essex, family, appear 
in Salem some time before 1636-7, on which date grants of 
land were made to the two brothers. The name of John 
Pease appears in the Salem records, 1638, 1639 (when he 
was stated to be absent), 1641 and 1643. His brother Robert 
continues to be mentioned until 1644 when he died, and the 
death of their mother Margaret, also in 1644, marked the 
breaking up of that family. Possibly this determined John 
Pease to remove, and he sold his estate in Salem that year, 
and in a year or two more a John Pease appears on the Edgar- 
town records as a resident at the Vineyard. These facts do 
not disprove the alleged landing at the Vineyard some time 
prior to the above dates. Neither do they help it out much, 
for the story presupposes continuous residence at Great Har- 
bor from the first landing until the Mayhews arrived. This 
would have been an inherent improbability in the case of 
John Pease of Great Baddow, Salem, and Great Harbor, 
whose life in Salem is well accounted for. 

(b) (William) Vincent. It is supposed that our William 
Vincent is meant, but such could not have been the case. 
He was not born until 1627 and he could not have participated 
in any settlement here prior to 1640 except as a boy. Some 

95 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

other Vincent, not identified, must be considered, and as 
no Christian name is mentioned the particular one who is 
supposed to have been one of the alleged landing party must 
remain an unknown quantity. One account states that it 
was Thomas Vincent, but this does not help the discussion in 
any particular. 

{c) (Nicholas) Norton. If the member of the alleged 
early settlement was our Nicholas Norton who, if the story 
be true, again returned to the Vineyard in 1659, it becomes 
necessary to ascertain his whereabouts. The first mention 
of him in New England is at Weymouth, Mass., about 1637, 
where he was a settler and where he resided for twenty years 
as the records show. There is some reason to believe he 
came over in 1635 with a company, under the leadership of 
Rev. John Hull. As some doubt exists whether it was Norton, 
as in one account, or Malachi Browning, as in another, the 
former may be dismissed with the statement that what is 
known of his movements in this country does not help the 
story we are considering. 

(d) Malachi Browning. This early settler at the Vine- 
yard is found at Watertown in 1640 and until 1642, when 
his homestead lot is mentioned, but nothing appears of record 
before that date to show whether he was an earlier resident 
in New England. Therefore, he could have been one of the 
supposed party, at some anterior time, by negative reasoning. 
In 1647 he calls himself "late of Watertown," as he had then 
become a resident of the Vineyard. 

(e) (Thomas) Trapp. As our Thomas Trapp was born 
about 1635 it is clear that he could not have been the compan- 
ion of John Pease. In the absence then of any more definite 
identification his name must be dismissed as an inherent 
improbability. We are unable to learn of any other person 
bearing this name in New England at an early date. 

It will thus be seen that of the persons alleged to have 
settled and remained on the island as squatters until Mayhew 
came, there is such an element of doubt in each case as to 
amount to a denial of the probability that either one of those 
named could have done the thing claimed. It requires us 
to place these four or five men here before 1641 and that we 
have seen them to be elsewhere on those dates seems to es- 
tablish a fair alibi for those who were not too young to have 
their names considered. The idea that "a number of fam- 

96 



The Legendary Settlement Before 1642 

ilies" as stated by Parson Thaxter, settled on the island, 
and all evidence of them remained unknown for nearly two 
centuries is almost too much for serious consideration. 



THE "BLACK BOOK INCIDENT. 

The "Black Book" plays a part in all the versions, and 
is told with insinuations of fraudulent dealing on the part of 
some persons, presumably acting in the interest and at the 
instigation of the Mayhews. The main point is that with 
the mysterious disappearance of this "black" volume the 
descendants of John Pease lost all records and titles to this 
prior settlement and his lands. This belief is apparently 
well fixed among those responsible for this legend. It is 
certain that John Pease, in his lifetime enjoyed his property 
unmolested. There is no allegation to the contrary by the 
relators, and for forty years his title was unimpeached. This 
alleged "site of Edgartown" which he and three others ac- 
quired must have gone into the possession of some others 
after his death, but the records do not contain any line show- 
ing that his heirs ever attempted to recover this alleged loss; 
and if his descendants wxre deprived of "rights," so equally 
were the descendants of Vincent and Trapp, neither of whom 
appear in any suit to establish titles to this supposed property, 
of which they had been defrauded after forty years of peace- 
able possession. As far as can be seen by the records. Pease, 
Trapp, Vincent and Browning participated in all the divi- 
sions of land as proprietors in equal shares with the rest. 

Thomas Mayhew, Senior, was very careful to purchase 
everybody's claim to "rights," alleged or otherwise, to land 
on the Vineyard, Stirling's, Gorges' and the Indians. In 
several recitals of all this expense and effort he had undergone 
to quiet all claims, he does not once mention this legendary 
settlement of whites before he came, whose title might jeopard 
his own. At that time he w^as not calculating the historical 
aspects of the case, but telling his many endeavors to satisfy 
everyone's claim to property rights on the island. This set- 
tlement, if it existed, was more of a menace to his proprietary 
interests than the Indian's "right," which he scrupulously 
bought, and it is not to be supposed that by any conspiracy 
he could enact a wholesale confiscation of the property of 
several families. 



97 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

Rev. Mr. Thaxter states that "the old record was for 
reasons unknown, destroyed," and Mr. Richard L. Pease has 
left a more circumstantial account which is as follows : — 

Tradition says that the early records were kept in a book with a black 
cover, thence called the Black Book, and that at the time of his decease John 
Pease was the Clerk. During his illness a woman attended upon him as 
nurse. On the day of the funeral this book was seen, but never publicly 
since. That it was in existence for many years afterwards I have no doubt, 
and such was the general belief of the community. 

This story was told to him by Capt. Valentine Pease 
before mentioned. The dramatic story of the abstraction 
of the "Black Book" told by the late Hebron Vincent strains 
hard upon our credulity when we consider that the alleged 
circumstances occurred in a little village of not more than 
twenty families at that date, and that such an event could 
not be concealed, or the identity of the thieves lost in a mul- 
titude. This feature of the legend reduces it to an indictment, 
of which the title might be "Pease versus Mayhew." It is too 
fantastic for serious consideration. The writer states that he 
heard these stories from his grandfather, Zachariah Pease 
(i 750-1845), as well as from Obed Pease, before referred to, 
as one of the sponsors of the legend. The attention of the 
reader will be attracted to the variation in the details of this 
portion of the legend from those previously given. 

The question then will naturally arise — is there any 
reason for the existence of the tradition in the subsequent 
annals of the settlement at Great Harbor, as respects the 
treatment of the persons named? The theory evolved by 
Rev. Mr. Thaxter that in the divisions of land the Mayhews 
and their associates had twenty-five whole shares, and "the 
others were called half-share men" is not borne out by the 
records in any sense. The land divisions of Edgartown are 
described elsewhere and it will not be necessary to enter into 
details here. In the first recorded division in 1653, there were 
but twenty shares, of which Pease and Browning, the only 
ones of the alleged squatters, received one each with Mayhew 
and the rest. The "half lots" were simply half shares which 
had been sold by original proprietors to new comers. The 
same sub-division of lots occurred in Tisbury and Chilmark 
by identical means, and so far from the possession of a half -lot 
indicating early arrival, it shows in reality a later settlement. 
The best evidence on this point, however, is that no discrimi- 

98, 



The Legendary Settlement Before 1642 

nation in these divisions is shown in the case of the four men 
who figure in the story. As previously stated there is no 
known evidence existing that John Pease or any of his four 
or more companions were ever deprived of their lands, whether 
obtained rightfully or illegally. Many settlers undertook to 
acquire land of the Indians after the settlement, being often 
tempted by the ignorance of the natives about such matters. 
In order to prevent fraud the town passed a law that no one 
should do this without consent under a penalty of ;^io for 
each acre so purchased. John Daggett disobeyed this, as 
will appear later, and had to stand suit for it, and it is possi- 
ble that Pease did the same thing in the early days and had 
to return the land to the natives. It may be the basis of the 
"red coat" story, a payment given by Pease to the Chief for 
the land. In similar way Mayhew paid the Indians in clothing, 
as part of the bargain he made with them. 

THE PROBABILITIES AND CHARACTER OF THE TRADITION. 

The story of the supposed landing and settlement of 
John Pease and his companions first obtained currency and 
publicity about a century ago or about 175 years after the 
alleged events transpired. It has no support outside of the 
descendants of one of the four (or more) supposed settlers. 
There are no Vincents, Nortons or Trapps who have garnered 
this tradition in their families, though the last named has not 
been represented in the male line for over a century on the 
island. Stories of this sort, however, can be handed down 
through female lines, and there are numerous descendants 
of the Trapps, as well as of Browning, who defaulted of male 
descendants, as far as known. An author previously quoted 
(1807), endeavored a century ago to get some corroboration 
of this story in other directions, but failed, and thus states 
his conclusions : — 

An effort has been made by enquiry of the oldest inhabitants of Mar- 
tha's Vineyard, who are descendants of the families that landed as aforesaid, 
to ascertain the port from whence they sailed, and the name of the ship, 
which has been entirely fruitless; none of them having the least recollection 
in relation to it, notwithstanding some of them are nearly a hundred years 
old, and have the use of their faculties unimpaired. 

DISCREPANCIES IN THE LEGEND. 

The story is consistent and insistent in one particular 
only, that these persons "came before the Mayhews." In 

99 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

other details the disagreement is marked. The personnel of 
the unwritten settlement consisted variously of "four" men, 
unmarried; of "a number of families" ; of "eight or ten 
English families"; and finally of "twenty-four families." 
The motive or cause of this landing and unexpected settle- 
ment is given as variegated a color as there are versions quoted. 
The ship was bound for Port Penn on the Delaware, as well 
as for Virginia. She was "short of provisions" in one case, 
and afflicted with a "distemper, which like a plague raged 
among the passengers and crew"; in another version they 
chanced here and were tempted to leave the ship by a gift of 
land; and again that the party "got frozen in and was ob- 
liged there to remain until spring." Whether a barren and 
uninhabited island was the natural place for a ship to deposit 
its passengers, either sick or starving, is a practical question 
in this connection.^ 

The story of the "red coat" is repeated in all versions 
with more or less amplification, according to the imagination 
of the relator. The earliest versions are the simpler, and the 
latest undertakes to account for the coat as a uniform belong- 
ing to Pease, who is stated to have been in the military service 
in England. No evidence has ever been offered to prove 
this statement. One account states that they went to the 
Cape for wives, and another that Pease probably went back 
to England and returned with a family. It has no real bear- 
ing upon the main point, except to show disagreement in the 
detail of the alleged settlement. 

The character of the legend requires us to conclude that 
everybody has conspired to blot out all recollection of this 
alleged settlement, because of the fanciful interpretation given 
to a supposed loss of a certain "black book." This feature 
and the "red coat" incident can be explained upon ordinary 
grounds, and the digging of caves for houses at first is not 
an evidence of priority of settlement. It is pretty certain that 
this happened in every new settlement at that period. It will 
not be seriously argued that the first comers found building 
materials all ready for constructing houses. That the first 
comers had to "rough it" with crude shelters for a long time, 
is evident to our sense of the situation confronting them. 

'One version states that "in the Spring they went to the great Marshes. . . . 
returning to the Vineyard to winter." This seems a reversal of the probabilities. 
Under the circumstances, they would be more likely to go to the mainland "to winter" 
and return to the island in the Spring, on account of food supplies. 

lOO 



The Legendary Settlement Before 1642 

Saw mills were unknown and lumber had to be slowly hewn 
out of virgin timber into boards fit for the carpenter's use. 
Finally, the only document to which John Pease appended 
his name in connection with the settlement of the Vineyard 
does not help out the legend. In 1673-4 he signed with others 
a statement about the early township grants of 1642 and 1646, 
by the Mayhews, and of all the signers he was the eldest in 
point of years and residence here. The document states that 
"wee are the successors of those men (Daggett, Pierce, Beers, 
John and Francis Smith, the first patentees of the town in 
1642), and the first of us was admitted by their Approbation, 
and some purchased their lands." The significance of this 
is that John Pease states that he was among the first "ad- 
mitted" to be an inhabitant by the original proprietors of 
Edgartown, as one of the "successors," after the island had 
been purchased and a government organized. 

PROBABLE SOURCES OF THE TRADITION. 

It is true that the early book or books of record of Great 
Harbor are not in existence. Doubtless they were officially 
destroyed some time after they were transcribed into a new 
book in 1 730-1 by John Norton, then town clerk. The present 
records contain fairly full entries from the year 1642, but it 
is probable that, as in the case of Tisbury, which authorized 
a similar new copy for its records, many things were not con- 
sidered necessary for perpetuation in the new book. As John 
Pease died about 1674, and there is nothing in existing records 
to show that he was town clerk at that date, the relations 
of the "Black Book" to the story do not seem to be very 
important. It is reasonable to conclude that the disappear- 
ance of the old book or books, after transcription authorized 
by the town, has given rise to the tradition of the mysterious 
loss of a volume supposed to contain evidences of occupation 
earlier than that of the then proprietary family. We are still 
without any clue as to the origin of this tradition of this early 
settlement, and it only remains to consider one possible and 
even probable source. And this is furnished by another 
branch of the Pease family of Salem. Robert Pease, the 
elder brother of John, was contemporary with John in Salem, 
and a descendant of this Robert, of the third generation, 
Joseph^, removed to Enfield, Conn. There these pioneers, 

lOI 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

during their first winter at that place, were forced to prepare 
temporary shelter and made excavations in the side of a hill, 
as did the alleged early settlers at our Green Hollow. All 
this appears in a journal kept by Joseph Pease of Enfield 
(born 1693), third son of John of Salem and great nephew of 
John of Martha's Vineyard, as recently published in the His- 
tory of Enfield/ 

Doubtless this story of the "cave dwellers" of Enfield 
was well known to their children and grandchildren, and be- 
came a part of the traditions of the descendants of the Con- 
necticut pioneers. In the course of time descendants of our 
John Pease emigrated to Connecticut with the beginning of 
the westward movement of the middle of the i8th century. 
It is more than probable that these distant cousins were familiar 
with their common origin, and family tradition is to that 
effect. Jonathan of Edgartown went to Windham, Conn., 
before 1743, and Lemuel, an uncle of Obed, to whom the 
tradition is partly traced on the Vineyard, resided in Glaston- 
bury, same state. With the interchange of visits, the voyages 
back and forth from the Vineyard to Connecticut, it seems 
reasonable to conclude that the Connecticut cousins told their 
Vineyard cousins the story of their fathers who had ''dug 
caves in the side of a hill," when they first settled in that region. 
This story was carried back and rehearsed to the cousins at 
the Vineyard. The rest may be inferred. The tale of the 
first Peases who lived in caves during their first winter in Con- 
necticut was easily transferred in the telling, or in the hearing 
of it by children, to the Vineyard branch, and thus a story 
may have innocently grown into a belief that has survived 
many years, until it is now told by others with the assurance 
born of age and plausibility. The story of the "three black 
crows" is well to bear in mind whenever tradition is invoked 
to establish a desirable theory. The manner in which the 
story under consideration may have become amplified and 
circumstantial in detail is not a difficult matter to understand. 
Fragments of various stories about the early settlers here 
could become engrafted into one continuous whole in the 
course of a number of generations, and that such stories are 

^This was first published in 1829 by the late John Chauncey Pease, M.D., in 
his Historical Sketch of Enfield. He says that two brothers, John Pease, Jr., and 
Robert, came from Salem "to that tract of country now called Enfield in the year 
1679, built them a Hut or Cellar in the side of the Hill, about 40 rods East from where 
the old meeting house formerly stood, there they lived through the winter alone, no 
other white person in the place." 

102 



The Legendary Settlement Before 1642 

thus compounded is within the knowledge and experience of 
every historian. It is not the only legend about the early 
annals of the Vineyard which has come to the knowledge of 
the author that has vanished under a close inspection of 
records bearing on the points. Until some satisfactory cor- 
roboration of this tradition is forthcoming, it must be relegated 
to the "realms of tradition" and there awiait its promotion, 
if it deserves it, to the more substantial territory of established 
facts. 




ARMS OF WILIiIAM, LORD STIRLING. 



103 



History of Martha's Vineyard 



CHAPTER VII. 

The English Family of Mayhew. 

The name of Mayhew and the Vineyard are almost 
synonymous, and it will be interesting as well as instructive 
to learn something of the family which exercised such a sway 
over the early destinies of our island. The origin of the name 
is explained satisfactorily by a learned historical scholar of 
England, himself a descendant, and the following extracts are 
made from his account : — 

As an English family name it is most frequently met with in the South 
and West of this island, and few parish registers in the Counties of Hereford, 
Gloucester, Wilts and Dorset can be opened without presenting us with 
examples. It is spelt in many ways, varying from the extended form of 
Mayhowe to that of Mao, and often, as it will frequently appear, clipped 
down and reduced to May to the loss of its concluding syllable.^ One lesson 
is taught by the diversity and variety, viz : — the identity of Mayhew and Mayo, 
and from this consideration a ray of light is thrown upon the derivation 
of the name. An early occurrence of the name, and in its extended form, 
is found in Glover's Roll of Arms, supposed by Sir Harris Nicholas to date 
from between 1245 and 1250. Herbert le Fitz Mayhewe is there mentioned 
as bearing "party d'azur & de goulz one trois leonseaux rampant d'or," and 
Woodward in his History of Wales, page 415, narrates that account to the 
old copy of S. Davids Annals. The Welsh slew Sir Herbert Fitz-Mahu 
apparently in 1246, near the castle of Morgan Cam. The same Roll of Arms 
gives the clue to the origin of the name as a Christian name; in the case of 
Mahewe de Lovayne, Mayhew de Columbers and Maheu de Redmain. 
There can be little doubt that it is here a softened form of Matthew. Bards- 
ley in his "English Surnames" mentioned two other instances, Adam fil. 
Maheu, and Mayhew de Basingbourne, from the Parliamentary Writs. 
Lower, (Patronymica Brittannica, 219, 221,) takes the same view. 

Shakespeare in King " Lear " Act III, scene 4, says: 
"The Prince of Darkness is a Gentleman 
Modo he's called and Mahu." 

The family has its principal habitats in Cornwall, at 
Lostwithiel, Looe, Bray and Morval, to which belonged John 
Mayow, Fellow of All Souls, Oxford, and that Mayow of 
Clevyan, in St. Columb Major, who was hanged on a tavern 

'As an example of the loss of the final syllable, the following may be noted: 
Walter Mayo vel Meye admissus in Artibus 26 June 1511, (Gough Mss. 7, Bod. Lib.); 
the will of Robert Mayo of Broughton Gifford 16 Nov. 1572, in the Prerogative Court, 
though his family name was usually written May, as in the Wiltshire visitations; the 
will of Henry Mayo alias May, of Kellways, Wilts, 1661. 

104 



The English Family of Mayhew 

sign-post as a rebel against the injunctions of Edward VI, 
concerning religion. Dorsetshire has one family in the Visita- 
tion; Gloucestershire, at Kempley, Tetbury, Charfield; Here- 
fordshire, at Tottenham; Northamptonshire, at Holmden, in 
the Visitation of 1619; Norfolk, at Billockby and Clippesby; 
Suffolk at Clopton, Helmington and Bedingfield, and in WOt- 
shire more than one family of the name are found including 
Mayhew of Din ton in the Visitations of 1565 and 1623, whose 
pedigree is here inserted. (See page 106.) 

Of noted persons of the name is Richard Mayo, other- 
wise Mayeo, Maiewe, Mayhue, etc., who was born near 
Hungerford, educated at Winchester, became a fellow of New 
College in 1459; after passing through the lower orders he 
became Chancellor of Oxford, 1503, and Bishop of Hereford 
in 1504. He died in April, 1516.^ 

In the Records of the Commissioners for the United 
Colonies, there appeared a letter, now in the Connecticut 
Archives,^ written by Governor Mayhew, sealed with arms 
which, upon examination, proved to be the arms, with a mullet 
for difference, of the Mayhew family of Dinton, Wiltshire, 
a county family of considerable distinction. These facts, 
taken in connection with the bestowal by Mayhew of the 
names of Tisbury and Chilmark on two adjoining towns on 
Martha's Vineyard, (the latter settlement having been origi- 
nally chartered as Tisbury Manor), and the fact that Tisbury 
and Chilmark are adjoining parishes in Wiltshire, and sepa- 
rated by a few miles only from Dinton, made it quite evident 
that this locality was the one which should reveal his family 
connection. 

In April, 1898, the author, during a visit to England, was 
a guest by previous appointment of the Vicar of Tisbury, 
the Rev. F. E, Hutchinson, who is of the same stock as one 
family of the New England Hutchinsons. He spent two 
days at the vicarage and had ample time to make a thorough 
examination of the old parish registers of Tisbury, which are 
extant from the year 1563, including the original and a parch- 
ment copy of almost contemporary date. Below extracts from 
the parish register are given, which include all of the name 
of Mayhew in its several variations, as well as some relating 

'Genealogical Account of the Mayo and Elton Families by Rev. Canon Mayo, 
vicar of Long Burton, Dorset. London, 1882. 

'Conn. Col. Records, 1678-1689. pp. 504-506. 



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History of Martha's Vineyard 

to persons connected with the family by marriage mentioned 
in wills, to be hereafter given, during the period necessary 
for our purpose. 

Extracts from the Parish Register of Tisbury, Co. Wilts. 

baptisms. 
1583 Sept. 13, Henry, son of Maoh. 

1589 May I, Elizabeth, daughter of Matthew Maho. 
1591 Jan'yiy, John, son of Matthew Mayoo. 

1593 April I, THOMAS, SON of MATHEW MAHO. 
1595-6 Feb. 8, Jone, daughter of Mathew Mayhoe. 
1598 Dec. 18, Alice, daughter of Mathew Maiho. 

-^ Mar. 15, Katherine, daughter of Mathew Maio. 
1000 

1602 April 14, Edward, son of Mathew Mayhow. 

marriages. 

1573 Nov. 24, Myhell May and Jone Vanner. 

1575 April 21, Thomas (Maow?) and Alyce (Waterman?) 

1578 Nov. 23, An Maio and Thomas Turner. 

1579 Aug. 3, An Maio and John Waterman. 

1587 Octo. 2, MATHEW MAOW and ALES BARTER. 

burials. 
1586 July 14, Ales wyffe of Thomas Maow. 

1590 June I, Thomas Maow. 



^^vo" m «.k a Wa*0 



REPRODUCTION OF ENTRY IN PARISH REGISTER SHOWING RECORD 
OF BAPTISM OF THOMAS MAYHEW. 

The marriage above indicated by capitals is that of the 
parents of Gov. Thomas Mayhew, and his baptism is likewise 
printed in the same type. Attention need scarcely be drawn 
to the various ways the name is entered in the register. In 
the baptisms given, eight in all, there are seven different 
spellings. This entry of the baptism of Thomas, son of 
Mathew Maho, April ist, 1593, probably within a few days 
of his birth, is not absolutely conclusive evidence of identity 
with our Thomas, but taken in connection with the facts re- 
lating to the reappearance on INIartha's Vineyard of the names 
of Tisbury Manor (which is situated in the parish of Tisbury, 
England,) and Chilmark the adjoining hamlet, and the name 
of Matthew, which for succeeding generations appeared in 
the Martha's Vineyard family, it becomes one of those cases 
where an affirmative conclusion is clearly inferential. 

108 



The English Family of Mayhew 

Corroborative evidence is also available in respect to 
Governor Mayhew's age, which corresponds approximately 
with the record of this baptism. The double dating of that 
period from January i to March 25, enters the problem to 
give it some slight complications, but as he was born near the 
dividing line between the new and the old years 1592 and 1593, 
his several statements regarding the great number of years 
he attained (evidently a source of pride to him) lead us readily 
to conclude that with the proneness which he exhibited to 
reiterate his longevity, he unintentionally adopted 1592 as his 
birth year, when it was in reality 1593, and that a further 
source of error lies in the confusion which may result from 
such general statements as that he was eighty-seven years of 
age, or in his "87th yeare hallf out." The following are all 
the references regarding his age which have been thus far 
observed, and it will be noticed that the first one, before he 
had grown to riper years and indulged the pardonable satis- 
faction at attaining great age, is the only correct one as com- 
pared to the date of baptism. It bears out the theory that 
he unconsciously overstated his age as he grew older. 

1. On Sept. 15, 1664, he wrote, "I am 71 and 5 monthes 
at present."^ This would carry his birth back to about 
2-1 5-1 593. [Within one month prior to April 15, 1593, 
which agrees with the baptism.] 

2. On 24 (6), 1678, he wrote, "It hath pleased God to 
keepe me alyve and verry well, to write thus much in my 
87th yeare hallf out."^ This would carry his birth back to 
about 12-24-1591. [Feb. 24, 1591-2.] 

3. In his will dated June 16, 1681, he began: "I, Thomas 
Mayhew of Edgartown upon the Vineyard in this ninetieth 
year of my age." This would carry his birth back to some 
time between June 17, 1591, and June 16, 1592. 

4. On April 13, 1682, Matthew Mayhew, his grandson, 
announced to Gov. Thomas Hinckley of Plymouth the death 
of his grandfather as follows: "It pleased God of his great 
goodness as to continue my honoured grandfather's life to 
a great age (wanting but six days of ninety years), so to give 
the comfort of his life, and to ours as well as his comfort, in 
his sickness (which was six da3^s)."^ 

^Mass. Hist. Coll., 4th series, vol. 7, p. 40. 
'Plymouth Colony Records, vol. 10, p. 406. 
^Mass. Hist. Coll., 4th series, vol. 5, p. 61. 

109 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

Previously to the author's visit to Tisbury a personal 
search of the Wiltshire wills deposited at Somerset House re- 
lating to the Archdeaconry of Sarum, in which the parishes 
of Tisbury, Chilmark and Dinton are situated, was made. 
There was found, among others of the family, the wills of 
Matthew Mayhew, the father of Thomas, and of Agnes May- 
hew, an aunt of Thomas, in both of which documents his 
name occurs as a beneficiary. The full copy of the will of 
Matthew is here presented : — 

PRINCIPAL REGISTRY OF PROBATE (WILTSHIRE), ARCHDEACONRY OF SARUM, 

VIII, 224. 

In the name of God Amen. I Mathew Maihew of Tisbury in the 
county of Wilts yeoman being in good health and of perfect memory (thankes 
bee to god for it) doe make constitute and ordeine this my last will and test- 
ament in manner and form following First I bequeath my soule into the 
handes of Almighty God my maker and redeemer and my body to bee buried 
in the Church or Churchyard of Tisbury aforesaid. Itm I give and be- 
queath to the prish Church of Tisbury iiis vid. Itm I give and bequeath 
to the poore people of the aforesaid Tisbury iis iiiid. Itm I give and be- 
queath to my Sonne Thomas Maihew Forty pounds of good and lawfuU 
monie of England whereof twenty pounds to bee paid him by my Executor 
wthin one whole yeare after my decease and the other twenty pounds to bee 
paid by my Executor wthin five years after the payment of the first twenty 
pounds in manner and forme following viz: fower pounds evy year until 
the sume of twenty pounds bee paid and the five yeares expired Itm I give 
and bequeath unto my sonne Edward Maihew six and forty pounds of good 
and lawfuU monie of England whereof six and twenty to bee paid him by 
my executor wthin one whole yeare after my decease and the other twenty 
pounds to bee paid unto him by my executor after the same manner and at 
the same times wch are prscribed for the payment of the last twenty pounds 
of my Sonne Thomas his portion Itm I give and bequeath unto my daugh- 
ter Joane Maihewe six and forty pounds of good and lawful! monie of Eng- 
land whereof six and twenty pounds to bee paid wthin one whole yeare 
after my decease and the other twenty pounds to bee paid after the same 
manner and at the same times wch are prescribed for the last payment of 
my sonne Thomas his portion Itm I give and bequeath unto my daughter 
Alice Maihew six and forty pounds of good and lawfuU monie of England 
to be paid unto her by my executor after such manner and at such times as 
my daughter Joane Maihewes portion is to be paid Itm I give and be- 
queath unto my daughter Katherine Maihew six and forty pounds to bee 
paid unto her by my executor after the same manner and at the same times 
wch are prscribed for the payment of my other two daughters portions All 
the rest of my goods and chattels moveable and unmovable I give and be- 
queath unto my sonne John Maihew whom I make my whole and sole 
executor of this my last will and testamt Itm I doe constitute and ap- 
pointe John Bracher of Tisbury Edward Bracher of Tisbury Richard 
Langly of Boreham and John Gilbert of Deny Sutton ovrseers of this my 

no 



The English Family of Mayhew 

last will and testament In witnes whereof I have hereunto subscribed my 
hande the last day of August in the year of our Lord 1612 

The marke of Mathewe Maihewe 
In the prnce of 
Luke Simpson 
John Gilbert 
John Turner 
John Bracher 

Memorand That if my sonne Thomas Maihewe Edward Maihewe 
Joane Maihewe Alice Maihewe Katherine Maihewe or any one of them doe 
chaunce to dye before they have receaved theire portions then my will is 
that the portions of the parties deceased shall equally bee divided amongst 
the rest then liveing 

Witnesses hereunto 

Luke Simpson 

John Gilbert 

John Turner 

John Bracher 
Proved 27th June 1614 

The will of Agnes Mayhew of Tisbury, dated Jan. 12, 
1606, gives to "Thomas the son of my brother Matthew, five 
pounds," and it was proved June 24, 1612 (Arch. Sarum, VIII, 
168). 

With respect to the connection of this. Tisbury twig with 
the armorial family of Dinton, it is to be observed that Matthew 
describes himself as "yeoman," which may not disqualify 
him as a cadet scion of the armigerous family, particularly 
in view of the fact that Governor Mayhew, his son, used a 
seal, which he must have obtained in England, cut with the 
arms of the Dinton family, and having as a mark of difference 
the mullet, indicating that he was descended from the third 
son of the armorial grantee.^ The tabular pedigree which 
appears herewith, showing the Dinton family as given in the 
Harleian manuscripts and in Hoare's Wiltshire, to which have 
been added some facts obtained from wills and other original 
sources, fails to afford us any information concerning the 
descendants of Thomas, the third son of Robert Mayhew, 
and the author strongly suspects that it is to him, whose 
Christian name Governor Mayhew bore, we must look for 
an extension of the pedigree. The laws of primogeniture, 

'Many years ago there was issued by the late Jonathan Mayhew of Buffalo, 
N. Y., a pictorial "family tree" which has, erroneously, depicted on it the coat armor 
of the Mayhews of Hemingston, Suffolk. 

Ill 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

which existed at that period, and which were so carefully 
observed by the heralds, afforded little consideration for cadet 
branches of county families, and we are at present reduced 
to conjecture as to the relationship of Matthew to the Dinton 
stock, a conclusion which seems reasonable to be made in 
the affirmative from all the collateral facts. It is to be ob- 
served that the name of Simon Mayhew, which appears at 
the head of the tabular pedigree, was used by the Martha's 
Vineyard family as early as 1687, which may be classed as 
additional corroborative testimony. Unfortunately the parish 
registers of Chilmark are missing prior to 1653, and although 
Bishops' transcripts exist in the Diocesan Registry at the 
Salisbury Cathedral, *'Our Lady Church of Sarum," they 
contain no Mayhew entries.^ A branch of the Dinton family, 
represented by Walter, the fourth son of Robert of Dinton, 
lived in Chilmark, which is the next parish to Tisbury and 
nearer Dinton. Walter Mayhew "de Chilmark, gentleman" 
made his will Aug. 30, 1604, which was proven Dec. 24, 1606, 
and in it he makes a bequest to the poor of Fountell (Font- 
hill) where his elder brother Edward resided.^ No references 
to Tisbury or relatives outside of his family appear (Arch. 
Sarum, Rotula XV). John Mayhew of Dinton, however, 
the eldest son of that generation, in his will dated Sept. 20, 
1562, bequeaths a small sum "to the Church of Tisbury," 
besides to his own church and the Cathedral at Salisbury 
(Arch. Sarum. IV, 165), which may be taken as showing some 
interest or connection with that parish. 

All the evidence adduced, by inference and exclusion, 
seems to favor the Tisbury family as the one to which Gov- 
ernor Mayhew belongs, and that the Tisbury branch belongs 
to the Dinton stock seems equally presumptive. The line 
of Matthew's parentage probably sprung off before the Din- 
ton stock had their pedigree registered in 1565, and it is also 
fair to presume that Simon, who heads it, had more than one 
son. With the exception of Matthew many of the names of 

'The Dinton Parish Registers are extant from 1558, but contain no entries which 
throw Hght on Thomas, the third son of Robert. 

^The adjoining parish of Chilmark, disclosed some early Macy stones in the 
churchyard. It will be remembered that Thomas Macy of Nantucket, who is said 
to have been of Chilmark, referred to Thomas Mayhew of Martha's Vineyard as 
"my honored cousin" (N. Y. Col. MSS., Vol. XXV), and while searching for Mayhew 
wills, I accidentally found the will of Thomas Maycie of Chilmark, dated 1575, which 
may serve as the basis of some future investigations concerning that well-known 
family, whose emigrant ancestor first settled in Salisbury, Massachusetts. 

112 



The English Family of Mayhew 

sons in the Tisbury and Dinton families are nearly identical, 
John, Thomas, Henry, Edward/ 

In the Mayow arms sea mews are engraved for the birds, 
which in the authorities quoted are given as "birds." It will 
be noticed that the arms described on the tabular pedigree 
have a crescent for difference, indicating their use at the time 
of the visitation (1565) by a second son, probably Edward, 
son of Robert. Thomas, the younger brother, would have 
used the mullet for dift"erence. The use of the mullet by 
Gov. Thomas Mayhew, indicating his descent from a third 
son of the Mayow family of Dinton, taken with the other 
evidence presented, leads to the belief that the Thomas who 
was buried at Tisbury in 1590, was father of Matthew, grand- 
father of Gov. Thomas, and son of Robert.^ 

It now remains to turn to the maternal ancestry of Gov- 
ernor Mayhew, the Barters of Wiltshire, of whom Alice, as 
we have seen, married Matthew Maow in 1587. While the 
author cannot with equal satisfaction designate beyond doubt 
the particular branch to which she belonged, yet the following 
wills indicate her probable parentage and the tabular pedigree 
illustrates it : — 

BARTER 



James Barter=^Margat!et . 
of Fovent, 
Wilts. 



Edward Barter =:=;Edith Roger. 



(eldest son) 
of Fydleton, Haxton, 

Wilts. 



Thomas . 
Christian. 



William Joan Alice Christian Edward Ellyn Harry John 

The will of James Barter of Fovent, Wilts, is dated 
Sept. I, 1565, and in it he mentions among others his eldest 

'The Mayhews of Dinton were Roman Catholics, and according to a recent au- 
thority, had in those days suffered for their attachment to that faith. An Edward, 
born at Dinton, 1570, became a Benedictine monk, and with his brother Henry was 
admitted to the English College at Douay in 1583, and later they matriculated at the 
English College, Rome, 1590 (Stephen, Diet. Nat. Biog. Art. Maihew). He died in 
1625. It is probable that he was the son of Henry, and was baptized at Dinton, 
Nov. 12, 1571. In those days of religious ostracism and persecution, when the Puritan 
movement was growing in strength, it is possible that the branch to which Governor 
Mayhew belonged became Protestant, and thus lost association with and recognition 
by the parent stock. 

*This account of the Tisbury family is condensed from an article in the Genea- 
logical Advertiser, prepared by the author for that publication. (Vol. IV, pp. 1-8.) 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

son Edward and his daughter (in law) Edith, wife of Edward. 
(Arch. Sarum, P. C. C, IV, 210.) 

The will of Edward Barter, his son, of Haxton, Wilts, 
of the parish of Fydleton, is dated Oct. 6, 1574, and mentions 
among others, his wife Edith and his daughter Alice. (Arch. 
Sarum, P. C. C, V, 231.) 

The will of Edith Barter, widow, of the same parish, 
is dated Aug. 9, 1576, and mentions among others her daughter 
Alice to whom she gave ''halfe an aker of wheat and half 
an aker of barley my best cowlett, my white pety coat, my 
kercher, my canvas apron a platter and porringer" (Arch. 
Sarum, P. C. C, V, 273.) 

As this Alice was the only one found by the author in 
his searches among Wiltshire wills, and as the name of Edward 
was bestowed on the third son of Matthew and Alice, pre- 
sumably in honor of her father, as Thomas had been given 
in memory of his father, this origin of Alice Barter, the mother 
of Thomas Mayhew, is offered as the probable solution of the 
question of her ancestry. 

Of the childhood, education, and early business training 
of Thomas Mayhew of Tisbury, nothing definite has come 
to the knowledge of the author. It is presumed that he lived 
in Tisbury during his youth, and was educated in the parish 
school under the care of his parents. When his father died, 
he was twenty-one years of age, and it is certain that this 
event placed upon him the necessity of individual responsi- 
bility for the future. We know that he became a merchant, 
but where he served his apprenticeship is unknown. Daniel 
Gookin, who knew him personally, says he was "a merchant 
bred in England, as I take it at Southampton." This seaport 
town was, in that period, one of the most important com- 
mercial centres in England, ranking with Bristol as secondary 
to the great port of London. Like all merchants of the mari- 
time ports, he naturally became cognizant of and interested 
in foreign trade, and as the colonization ventures of the es- 
tablished mercantile companies began to develop, he must 
have learned of the possibilities of profitable traffic beyond 
seas. Among the great merchants of London, Mr. Matthew 
Cradock was an early adventurer in this line of business, 
and was among the first to support the companies engaged 
in the colonization of New England. In the course of busi- 
ness it is to be supposed that every suburban merchant in 



114 



The English Family of Mayhew 

England went to London often to have dealings with the 
large wholesale houses in the capital, and in that way we may 
suppose Mayhew became known to Cradock and thus laid 
the foundation of their business relations in later years. In 
1625, at the accession of Charles the First, Thomas Mayhew 
was thirty-two years of age and had been engaged in business 
for himself in all probability for about a dozen years, since 
the death of his father. During that period he had married, 
about 1 61 9, and family traditions and a record of some an- 
tiquity brings down to us the name of the bride of his youth 
as Abigail Parkus.^ Further particularization has been given 
to this tradition by making her a daughter of that Parkhurst 
family, of which George Parkhurst of Watertown, Mass., 
1643, was the first New England representative. George was 
the son of John Parkhurst of Ipswich, England, a clothier, 
and his sisters, Deborah and Elizabeth, came to this country 
with him, and were later residents of the Vineyard, the former 
as wife of John Smith and the latter of Joseph Merry. So 
far no documentary or recorded confirmation of his marriage 
has come to light, and some considerable search has been 
made to find the probable place where the marriage took 
place, but without avail. The tradition is given for what it 
is worth. 

The fruit of this first marriage of Thomas Mayhew was 
a son who was christened by the name of his father, about 
1618, and living to man's estate became the famous missionary 
to our Indians on the Vineyard.'^ No other children are 
known, nor when and where the mother died. We are at 
present left to conjecture as to the whereabouts of the father, 
as well as his family, and not until 1628 do we find a further 
possible reference to him. The Company of the Massachu- 
setts Bay were then actively promoting their new settlements 
at Salem and vicinity, and sending supplies thither. Their 

^This is from a memorandum, genealogical in its character, prepared by Deacon 
William Mayhew, of Edgartown, who was bom in 1748, and was thus within the 
sphere of close personal knowledge of his immediate ancestors. He was ten years old 
when Experience Mayhew, the great family exponent, died (1758), and Experience 
was about the same age when the old governor died, thus but one life spanned the 
gap between Thomas Senior and Deacon William. The memorandum was preserved 
by the Deacon's son, Thomas, and was in existence in 1854. 

^The author has made extensive searches in all published parish registers of 
English churches and similar books, for any clue to his baptism or any reference to 
Thomas Mayhew. The following items are here printed, and may be of some value. 
Thomas Mayhowe, bapt. Aug. 20, 1617, at St. Martins in the Fields, London. The 
will of Mildred Reade of Linkenhurst, Co. Hants, widow, dated Aug. 15, 1630, 
mentions her nephew "Thomas Mayhew the younger." 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

records at this time contain the following entry, showing that 
Thomas Mayhew was then engaged in mercantile pursuits : — 

i6 March 1628. 
Bespoke of Mr. Maio at loj p yrd for beds & boulsters 20 bed tikes, 
Scotch Tikeing f broad & 2 1-16 long & ij yrds wide: 11 yrds each bed 
and boulster. Mass. Col. Records, I, 35. 

In two years more Mayhew had determined to follow to 
the New England the "beds & boulsters" and "bed tikes" 
he had sold for the emigrants to the latest English colony. 





STONE FONT, CHURCH OF S. JOHN THE BAPTIST, 1593. 
Used at the Baptism of Thomas Mahew, the elder.' 

'A replica of this font, in English Oak, was presented by the family of the author 
to Grace Church, Vineyard Haven, in memory of a deceased relative, several years 
ago, and may be seen in that church. 

116 



J 



Thomas Mayhew in Massachusetts 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Thomas Mayhew in Massachusetts. 

The richest Jems and gainful! things most Merchants wisely venter: 
Deride not then New England men, this Corporation enter: 

Christ call for Trade shall never fade, come Cradock factors send: 
Let Mayhew go another move, spare not thy Coyne to spend. 

Such Trades advance and never chance in all their Trading yet: 

Though some deride they lose, abide, here's gaine beyond mans wit. 
Johnson, Wonder- Working Providence (1654). 

^_y>2^^ The great interests of 

^^'^'^^ J^i^^'* ^^V'/^^^*^ Matthew Cradock in 

^ y New England required 

'^ more personal over- 

Signature of Thomas Mayhew g-gj^f ^ ^j^^ |^g Completed 

arrangements with Thomas Mayhew to go to New England 
and act as his representative in all business matters, making 
his headquarters at Medford, where he had built a "greate 
stone house" (still standing). Thither Mayhew went, pre- 
sumably taking with him his wife and young son, in 1631, 
though there is no fact to substantiate the supposed existence 
of the mother at that date. She may have died before his 
emigration, which is placed in the year 1631 from contempo- 
raneous records. March 6, 163 1-2, is the earliest record so 
far found of him in this country. At that date he appears 
on the records of the General Court of Massachusetts as 
chairman of a committee appointed by the Court to settle 
the boundary between Charlestown and Newton. As this 
record is the report of the committee, it must have been ap- 
pointed at an earlier date in the previous year. 

His time for the next three years was devoted to the 
services of his employer, attending to his investments, and 
managing his maritime and mercantile interests in the colony. 
By this time he had probably decided to cast his fortunes with 
the new country, and on May 14, 1634, he was admitted as a 
freeman by the General Court. Thenceforth he became actively 
identified with the political and business life of the colony. 

At this period he began the erection of a mill for his 
principal and the following letter concerning it is here printed : ^ 

'Massachusetts Historical Collection, 4, VII, 30. 

117 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

Meadeford the 22 th of the fouerth Moneth June 1634 
Sir: — I doe hereby request your worshipp to deHver this bearer that 
hempe you spake of, for caulkinge the pynnase: and I doe farther intreate 
you to lend Mr. Cradock the hellpe of your teeme, a day or two, to hellpe 
carry the timber for building the mill at Watertowne. I have sent unto 
Mr. (Richard) Doomer. I hope he will afiford me his hellpe: that with the 
hellpe of our owne wee may doe it in two dales. The reason I desire to 
have it donne with such expedition is for that the cattell must be watched 
whillst they are about it, in reguard they will be from home & soe doubtless 
otherwise would stray, or at least runn home: I will at any time, if your 
worshipp have occasion in the like kind, fulfill your desire: the time wee 
intend to goe about it is the second or third day of the next weeke. Thus 
ceaseing farther to trouble you at present, salutinge you with all due 
respect, committing you to the Lords protection, I rest 
Your worshipps to commaund 

THOMAS MAYHEW 
To the worshipfull John Wynthropp. 

May 14, 1634, he was fined for breach of order of the 
court "for imploying Indians to shoot with peeces." On the 
same date the Court appointed a committee to bargain with 
Mr. Mayhew and an associate "for the building of a seafort." 
On June 3 following, he was appointed to examine into "what 
hurt the swyne of Charlton (Charlestown) has done to the 
Indean barnes of corn, on the north side of the Mystick &c." 
At a previous date (July 2, 1633), he had been appointed 
administrator on the Glover estate, and at this session of the 
Court, he exhibited an inventory of the estate. He still con- 
tinued to reside at Medford, and sometime, in this year prob- 
ably, he found an opportunity to contract a second matri- 
monial alliance, but whether he found his new wife here or 
returned to England for her is not known. Savage, who is 
usually quite accurate, states that the marriage occurred in 
London, but on what authority is not known. ^ The second 
wife was Jane, widow of Thomas Paine, a merchant of Lon- 
don, and she brought into the household of Thomas Mayhew 
two children by her former husband. The maiden name of 
Mrs. Paine is said by family tradition to be Jane Gallion.^ It 
is quite probable that Mayhew had returned to England, 
and while there on business found a new wife, perhaps through 
the agency of Cradock. Thomas Paine, the deceased mer- 

'Genealogical Dictionary, III, 337. None of the published London parish 
registers have a record of this marriage. 

^The authority for this is the same memorandum before referred to, made by 
Deacon William Mayhew. 

118 



Thomas Mayhew in Massachusetts 

chant, had left considerable estates in England for his children, 
Thomas, Jr., and Jane, both minors, and the care of them 
now devolved on Mayhew as stepfather.' The daughter Jane 
was the elder of the two Paine children brought to the New 
England home and here she found as a big step-brother young 
Thomas Mayhew, then about fifteen years of age. It is not 
known how old Jane Paine was at this time, and we may only 
conclude from subsequent events that she may have been born 
about 1628 or 1629 and was therefore five or six years old. 
When she grew to be a young woman, about 1647, Thomas 
made this step-sister his wife. 

In 1635 Mayhew still resided at Medford, and on June 14 
of that year the first child of the second marriage came along 
and she was christened Hannah.^ 

March 4, 1635, he was appointed to serve on a committee 
to lay out the bounds of Salem, Marblehead and Saugus. 
On the same date he was made member of a committee to 
purchase for the use of the inhabitants such commodities as 
were deemed advisable from vessels and other craft which 
came into the port of Boston. On July 8 of this year, he was 
directed to present to the Court his account ''for the publique 
business" on which he had been employed. He was of the 
committee appointed to consider the act of Deputy-Governor 
Endicott "in defacing the colors," and to report to the Court 
"how farr they judge it sensureable." 

In this year on Aug. 19, 1635, he bought of Edward How 
one-half interest in the mill built by Cradock and himself, 
before mentioned. The purchase price was ;^2oo, for which 
Mayhew gave a bond and a mortgage for ^400 with condi- 
tions that if the price was paid the bond should be void. His 
business energies were thus turned to the occupation of milling, 
and it is recorded by a contemporary that it was an "excellent" 
mill "which in those times brought him great profit."^ 

In 1636, Mayhew continued his residence at Medford,^ 
and on December 6 of that year a second daughter came 

'Prolonged search in the London probate courts of the period, made for me by 
a professional genealogist, to find the will of Thomas Paine, and the same search in 
the parish registers, resulted in failure to locate this family in the great city. The 
estates left to Thomas, Jr., were at Whittlebury, Northamptonshire. 

^Plymouth Col. Rec. XII, 172, Waterto^vn Records. 

^Daniel Gookin. Description of the New England Indians, written in 1674. 
(Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., I, 141.) 

"Middlesex Co. Court Files. 



119 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

into the household, receiving the name of Bethiah/ He was 
made Representative to the General Court this year, and was 
returned each term until he removed to Martha's Vineyard 
in 1644-5, ^^^ during these years in which he served as rep- 
resentative, his name appears on many important commit- 
tees. The merchant, miller, and factor was still occupied 
in various pursuits as appears from contemporary records 
of the period. He was bringing supplies to the colony, en- 
gaged in shipping ventures, and running his mill.^ However, 
all of these were not profitable or remunerative, and it may 
be concluded that he was not an entire success as a business 
man. The following letter written by him this year discloses 
some of his operations : — ^ 

Meadefoard this 22th of the 2nd moneth 16^6 
Sir:- 

Touching my journey to He of Sholes to buy 80 hogsheads of pro- 
vission when I came I found noe such things as unto me for trueth was 
reported: to procure 8 hogsheads of bread I was fayne to lay out one hundred 
pounds in ruggs & coates unnecessarily: and for pease I got but i hogshead 
& ^ whereof I sowed certain bushells. Had things beene free at the coming 
in of the vessel, I would have had a greater share of what she brought, yett 
I confesse, as matters hath beene carried I have not ought against that which 
hath beene donne. I doubt not but that Mr. Peeters hath remembered you. 
Your father tould me that he had shippt in the Blessinge one hoggshead of 
beiffe, in lieu of that delivered unto Mr. Lovell. I shall confer with Mr. 
Wynthropp when more victualls come in, how wee mav steed you: assure 
your sellfe my hellp you shall not want. I have made out the accompt 
betweene us. Concerning the Bermuda Voyage and accompting the pota- 
toes at 2d. the corne at gs. per bushell, the pork at 10 li. per hogshead, 
orrenges and lemons at 20s. per c. wee two shall gaine twenty od pounds. 
Now that accompt cleared & the cattell wintring paid for, there will not be 
much coming unto you of the 80 od pounds I borrowed of you. I shall be 
ready at any time to advance soe much money to steede you, with thankes, 
if your occasions shall require it. I salute you respectively with my love. 
I command you to the guydance & protection of the Lord Jesus and doe 
rest, in some hast 

Your assured Loveing & readyly to be commanded 

THOMAS MAYHEW 

(To John Winthrop Jr.) 

Meanwhile his principal, Matthew Cradock, was be- 
coming dissatisfied with the results of Mayhew's stewardship, 
and in his anger at the state of affairs he ^vrote a letter to 
John Winthrop pouring forth his grievances. From all the 

HVatertown Records. 

^Winthrop, Journal, I, 466. 

^Massachusetts Historical Collection, VII, 31. 

120 



Thomas Mayhew in Massachusetts 

circumstances it does not appear that Mayhew had been guilty 
of any breach of trust, and as no action was taken on Cra- 
dock's hysterical letter we may conclude that the gravamen 
of offence was poor business judgment at the most. The 
letter is as follows : — 

Worthei Sir, — The greyffe I have beene putt to by the most vyle bad deal- 
ings of Thomas Mayhew hath & doeth so much disquiet my mynd, as I 
thank God never aney thing did in the Hke manner. 

The Lord in mercy ffreey me from this, I absolutely fiforbad chardging 
moneys from thence or buying aney goods there. I thanke God my oc- 
casions requyred it not but I have had great returnes made mee from thence 
by means of goods I sent thither by the direction of Thoma^^ Mayhew ffor 
above 5000 L in the last 2 yeeres & geeving to much credditt to his insyn- 
nuating practices & the good opynion I by the reports & advize of maney 
& more especially of your selfe, did apprehend of him, but ffarr beyond all 
expectacion & contrary to my express order he hath charged me with dyvers 
somes & geeven bills in my name which he never had order from me to doe, 
& that not for small somes, whereof some partyculers are specefyed in the 
inclosed which I pray you deliver my servant Jno. JoUiff : & good sir lett me 
intreate your self & those in authority there to make some course that 
Thomas Mayhew may be answerable ffor that estate of myne which my 
sayd servant can showe you hath come to his hands. This conveyance is 
uncerten & therefore I shalbee breiffer then I would or my necessety 
requyres but by Mr. Peirse, God willing, I shall Inlardge, but I know you 
may by this seey & apprehend my case. Bills come dayley almost pres- 
sented to me of one kynd or other without aney advize, but from Jno. JoU- 
iffs aryvall he ought not to have done any thing in my buiseynes without his 
approbacion & consent, but when it shall appeare howe he hath dealt by 
me, you & all men that shall seey it I ame perswaded will hardley thinke 
it could be possible that a man pretending sincerity in his actions could deale 
so viley as he hath & doeth deale by me. This buiseynes is not to be de- 
layed, if he can justify his actions it were to bee wished but not possible. 

Lett me crave your favour & the courts so ffarr as you shall seey my 
cause honest & just, & boothe the court & your self & the whole plantacion 
shall ever oblige me to be 

yours ever to my power 

MATHEWE CRADOCK. 
London 13 January 1636. 

The arrival in New England of a new factor for Cradock 
in the person of John Jolliffe, either in the latter part of 1636 
or more probably in 1637, had the effect of terminating May- 
hew's business relations with the London merchant, and it 
was about this time (1637) and for that reason, that Mayhew 
removed from Medford to Watertown.^ There he had ma- 
terial interests of his own, and for the next seven or eight 

'Letter, Roger Williams. Narr. Club Pub., VI, 69. 

12 I 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

years he was actively identified with that town and its affairs. 
He was chosen selectman this year (1637) and also was elected 
as Deputy to the General Court to represent his new home 
town in the Colonial Assembly. 

In 1638 he was again chosen selectman and re-elected 
as Deputy to the General Court. At this same session he was 
appointed a commissioner, which office was a local magistrate 
or justice of the peace for trying small causes, the first 
official of that kind accredited to Watertown. Another 
daughter w^as born to him, probably early in this year, who 
was christened Martha, the third addition to his family.^ 

In 1639, Mayhew was again chosen selectman of Water- 
town and re-elected as Deputy to the General Court, and his 
appointment as commissioner was renewed. In this year a 
fourth and last daughter was born to him and received the 
baptismal name of Mary. The date of her birth was Jan. 14, 
1639-40, being within the old calendar year of that period. 
Meanwhile he was prosecuting his milling interests in the town 
and being desirous of owning the mill entirely he purchased, 
May 29, 1639, the other half of Nicholas Davison, agent for 
Cradock and successor of Jolliffe, and mortgaged it back 
to Cradock with six shares of the "Wear," for ;^24o. The 
investment must have been a losing one, for in less than a 
year, on April 18, 1640, he sold the entire property to Deputy 
Governor Thomas Dudley for ;^4oo, subject to the mortgage 
to Cradock. Dudley redeemed this on or before March 7 
1643-4, but no evidence appears to show that How's mort- 
gage of ;/^4oo was paid by Mayhew. Indeed, at the death of 
How in the summer of 1644, this bond of Mayhew was reckoned 
as part of the inventory of the estate." Mayhew also was 
obliged to sell to Dudley his interest in the "Wear" above 
referred to, for ;^9o, subject to a mortgage to Cradock. 
We now begin to learn of his financial troubles as told by 
Gookin and how "it pleased God to frown upon him in his 
outward estate." ^ 

*She became the wife of Thomas Tupper of Sandwich, and the ancestress of 
Sir Charles Tupper, Prime Minister of Canada, 1890, and of Sir Charles H. Tupper, 
his son. 

^Edward How's will was dated Jxme 13, 1644, and probated on July 25 following. 
(Suff. Prob. Rec, I, 31.) 

'When the governor made his will in 1681, he still considered he had "rights" 
in this WatertowTi mill, and he bequeathed them to Matthew. Perhaps he thought 
he had not been dealt with justly. It is not known whether Matthew attempted to 
realize on the bequest. 

122 



Thomas Mayhew in Massachusetts 

In 1640, Mayhew was again chosen selectman and re- 
elected Deputy to the General Court. From an entry in the 
records of the colony, under date of June 2 of this year, we 
note a reference to some financial troubles: "Mr. Tynge & 
Mr Davison are desired to examine the acounts between 
Mr Joanes & Mr Mayhewe." ^ What this refers to is not 
known, but in a letter printed below Mayhew himself recounts 
the difficulties under which he labored, due to the scarcity 
of money in the country." 

nth of the 3d 1640. 
Right Worshipfull. 

I am to pay my owne rate, & some 5 li. for other men, that I owe it unto 
& allthough that I have had bills due from the Countrey, one yeare and 7 
moneths since, for 70 & od pounds, I must now have my goods sold, except 
I pay out this money: which seeing I have money to receive from the cout- 
rey methinks it is verry hard measure. I cannott see equitie in it. I may 
safely say that if I had had my money as was then fully intended, being then 
100 li. it had donne me more good, in name & state, then now wilbe made 
whole with double the money; but if there be noe remedy but my goods 
must be strayned and solid, I desire your worshipps advice per this bearer 
which is the Constable, what course is to be taken in putting it of. I thinke 
he comes unto you for counsell in that behallfe : thus with my due respecte, 
in some hast, I rest 

Your worshipps to command 

THO: MAYHEW 

To the Right Worshipfull John Winthropp Governour. 

Money is verry hard to gett upon any termes. I know not the man 
that can furnish me with it. I covild not gett the 100 li. of Mr. Gibbins. I 
gott 30 li. putt off inconveniently: & when I was sick & in necessitie I 
could not gett any of the Tresurer. I delight not to compleyne. 

In 1 64 1, Mayhew was again chosen selectman and re- 
elected as Deputy to the General Court, and at its session 
he was reappointed the commissioner for Watertown. He 
built the first bridge over Charles river in 1641. On June 2 
of that year, "the tole of Mr. Mayhew's bridge was referred 
to the governor and two magistrates to settle for seven years," 
in answer to his petition.^ Under what arrangement this 
was done does not appear, but that it proved a financial loss 
to Mr. Mayhew is evident from contemporaneous documents. 

'Mass. Col. Records, I, 296. 
^Massachusetts Historical Collection, 4 VII, 32. 

^No papers are preserved in the Mass. Archives on this subject. See Mass. 
Col. Rec, I, 337. 

123 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

Under date of Dec. lo, 1641, the following record throws some 
light on the situation : — 

Mr. Mayhewe his accounts were referred to the Treasurer & Mr. 
Duncum & for the bridge by the mill over the Charles River the Cort doth 
conceive itt to belong to the towne or townes in which itt lyeth.^ 

In payment, perhaps, or as partial recompense for his 
investment the General Court granted him 150 acres of land 
on the south side of the Charles river, "by Watertown weare." 
The exact status of this transaction is not apparent, but it 
seems to be a case where money and labor were invested in a 
public utility and receiving in return therefor a grant of land, 
probably unproductive and as a consequence denied au- 
thority to take tolls.' 

In the midst of these difficulties came the great event 
which changed the whole tenor of his future life — an op- 
portunity to acquire the title and sovereignty of Martha's 
Vineyard. 

How soon he visited his new possessions is not accurately 
known to us, but that he remained in Watertown as a resident 
for several years before removing can be readily established. 
In 1642, he was chosen selectman and re-elected Deputy to 
the General Court, both of which would be inconsistent with 
a residence elsewhere, as Nantucket and the Vineyard were 
not in the jurisdiction of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. 
On Nov. 21, 1642, he was ordered to make the (tax) rates 
in Watertown. In this year Mrs. Jane Mayhew (his wife), 
went to England to settle matters connected with the estate 
of her son, Thomas Paine, and presumably Mayhew waited 
her return before removal to the Vineyard.^ 

In 1643, he was chosen selectman and re-elected as Deputy 
to the General Court. The following entries in the colony 
records and other documents show that he was still residing 
in Watertown : — 

1643, May ID, Present at the General Court (II, 33) 
September 7, Fined 2s. for absence (II, 41) 
September 10, Appraiser in Lynn, and was called "of Watertowne." 

(Aspinwall, Notarial Record, 136) 
October 17, Grant of £3 for loss on corn (I, 337) 
October 17, Granted 300 acres on account of bridge (II, 51) 

^Mass. Col. Rec. (supplement), p. 346. 

^The authority for this was not granted until Oct. 17, 1643. (Mass. Col. Rec, 
11. 5I-) 

^Records of Commissioners of the United Colonies, II, 165. 

124 



Thomas Mayhew in Massachusetts 

The reference to the land grant is in full as follows : — 

Mr. Mayhewe is granted 300 ac of Land in regard of his charge about 
the bridge by Watertowne Mill & the bridge to belong to the Country. 

This marks the close of the unfortunate bridge trans- 
action.^ The "country" got the bridge, and Mayhew got a 
lot of land in the woods thirty miles west of Boston. 

In 1644, he was not chosen selectman, but was re-elected 
as Deputy to the General Court. His movements in this 
year at and about Boston are here scheduled from the colony 
records: — 

1643-4, March 7, Present at the General Court, (II, 55) 

1644, May 29, Present at the General Court, (II, 66) 

November 12, Examined Treasurer's accounts, (II, 79) 
December 7, Signed a report at Watertown to General 

Court, (II, 114) 

From this it will be evident that he was still livins: in 
Massachusetts and exercising ofhcial functions in that ' colony, 
which always jealously guarded any outside intrusion. 

In 1645, the report of the committee, of which he was 
chairman, signed in December, 1644, was presented to the 
General Court in May following, and on Oct. i, 1645, a sub- 
stitute was appointed "in the steede of Mr Mayhewe."^ On 
Dec. 16 and 17, 1645, he was in Boston with his wife, ex- 
ecuting a legal document before a notary and acting as a 
witness to another.^ This last item does not necessarily in- 
dicate that he still resided in Massachusetts, but the fact that 
he does not further appear upon the colony records and that 
his place was filled in an official capacity in the fall leads 
the author to conclude that he must have gone to the Vine- 
yard as a permanent removal in the spring or summer of 1645. 
It had been nearly four years since the purchase of the islands 
and his failure to utilize, in person, his newly acquired property 
is not understood. Not until Nov. 23, 1647, are we actually 
able to state that he lived thereon, as in a document of that 
date there first appears a statement that he was "of Martin's 

'Mass. Col. Rec.,11, 51. The next year at his own request he had 300 acres of 
land "laid out" to him in what is now Southboro and Framingham, an irregular 
tract of land on the north bank of the Hopkinton river; doubtless this was the grant 
made the year previous. Considerable litigation occurred in consequence of its sale 
after 1666. 

^Mass. Col. Rec, II, 139. 

'Aspinwall, Notarial Records, 8, 9. There is no statement of residence in these 
documents. 



125 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

Vineyard.'" Henceforth his hfe and work are so interwoven 
with the pohtical and social conditions of the island that to 
continue this biographical account would be to relate its 
history, and this phase of his career will be told in the regular 
course of events. 

'Aspinwall, Notarial Records, p. 92. Rev. Thomas Prince speaks of Mayhew's 
"first access to the island, being then about fifty five Years of age." This would 
take us to 1647. (Indian Converts, p. 297.) 




THE "CREATE STONE HOUSE," MEDFORD. 

Built for Matthew Cradock, 

1631, 

And occupied by Thomas Mayhew. 



126 



Thomas Mayhew, Junior 

CHAPTER IX. 

Thomas Mayhew, Junior. 

When brought to New England by his father in 1631, 
the younger Mayhew was about ten years old, and for the 
dozen ensuing years intervening between that and his majority 
he can be pictured as attending the village schools of Med- 
ford from 1631 to 1635, and at Watertown from the time his 
father removed there till he had finished with the common 
branches taught in the primary and grammar schools. Noth- 
ing in contemporary accounts of him indicates that he was 
"designed" for the profession of theology, or that he was to 
become a religious teacher. That this was his natural leaning 
appears evident from later developments, and he was given 
special instruction in languages, at least, after he had finished 
with the public schools. He was "tutored up," states Edward 
Johnson, an author of that period, from which we infer not 
a college education, but private instructors.' The Rev. 
Thomas Prince says on this topic : — 

He was a young Gentleman of liberal Education, and of such Repute 
for piety as well as natural and acquired Gifts, having no small Degree of 
Knowledge in ^the Latin and Greek Languages, and being not wholly a 
Stranger to the Hebrew." ^ 

Doubtless he found time or made the opportunity, while 
assisting his father, to study evenings with tutors. His usual 
occupation we may assume was assistant to his father in the 
management of the mill and farm at Watertown, and other 
enterprises in which the elder was engaged. The turning 
point in his career, however, was the purchase of this island 
in 1641, just after the young man had entered his majority, 
and his assumption, in 1642, of the charge of this venture 
as one of the patentees. Being thus related to the proprietor- 
ship of the soil and the management of its temporal affairs, 
he was the leader of the small band of his Watertown neigh- 
bors who came hither that year, and for the following four 
years, until the father finally came, he was the local governor 
of the new settlement. At this time he was still a bachelor 

'Wonder Working Providence. 
'Indian Converts, 280. 

127 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

and we have no means of knowing what were his domestic 
associations during that period, but when in 1646 the elder 
Thomas came with his family he made his home with them. 
With them, as we know, came the step-daughter, Jane Paine, 
and in the following year he made her his bride. 

The life of the younger Mayhew, during his residence of 
fifteen years on the Vineyard, is so interwoven with the story 
of the Indian missions which is elsewhere treated, that it is 
not designed here to do more than briefly outline his personal 
and family history in this sketch. The details of his life 
outside of his missionary work are very meagre, and his ab- 
sorption in it so complete that he apparently gave no time to 
other pursuits, and rarely left the island on secular business. 
His name is scarcely ever to be found on documents of the 
period, even as a witness to deeds or wills, and no letter of 
his is known to be in existence though a number that he wrote 
were printed in the Indian missionary tracts during his life- 
time.^ In but one instance do contemporary writings, diaries, 
and other documents of the period mention him. The Rev. 
John Wilson of Boston, in a letter dated Oct. 27, 1651, says: 
"There was here some few weeks since the prime Indian at 
Martha's Vineyard with Mr Mahewe (Humanequin)." 

Of the personality of this young "Apostle" there are a 
few pen pictures drawn by contemporaries which give us an 
insight into his zealous character. The Rev. Henry Whit- 
field visited him in 1651, as we shall read in another portion 
of the history, and as an observer for the society which sup- 
ported him in the missionary work, the comments are inter- 
esting and significant. After writing of the state of the mission, 
he goes on to say: "I made some enquiry about Mr. Mahu 
himself, and about his subsistence, because I saw but small 
and slender appearance of life in any comfortable way; the 
man himself was modest and I could get but little from him; 
but after I understood from others how short things went with 
him; and how many times he was forced to labour with his 
own hands, having a wife and three small children w^hich 
depended upon him to provide necessaries for them; having 

'The Massachusetts Historical Society has no letter of his in its vast collection of 
manuscripts, including the famous Winthrop Papers, which contain a number from 
the elder Mayhew. About 1850, in a Boston newspaper, there was advertised for 
sale, "the property of a widow lady who is in needy circumstances," consisting of a 
lot of autograph letters, including one of "Rev. Thomas Mayhew (rare) — $3." 
which was an absurdly low valuation for what is now known to be the value of such 
letters. 

128 



Thomas Mayhew, Junior 

not halfe so much yeerly coming in in a settled way, as an 
ordinary labourer gets there amongst them. Yet he is cheer- 
ful amidst these straits, and none hear him complain. The 
truth is he will not leave his work in which his heart is engaged." 

No words of comment can add to the strength of this 
delineation of the personality of the young missionary, and it 
will only be fitting to quote the statement of his aged father 
made shortly after the disaster which caused his death: "the 
work was followed by him when 't was bare with him for 
foode and rayment, and then indeede there was nothing in 
sight any waies but Gods promises." 

Of the temporal concerns of the younger Mayhew there 
is a singular absence of any definite record in the town, land, 
and probate volumes. There is no record of any grant of 
land to him, or of any sale made by him, nor are his lands 
referred to as the bounds of any other man's land, except on 
Chappaquiddick, where the lots were used for the grazing of 
cattle. No settlement of his estate is to be found on the town 
or probate books; and while it is known that he did not leave 
much, yet he must have had some property which would or- 
dinarily require the action of an administrator to distribute, 
or use for the benefit of creditors, but he is to all intents and 
purposes totally eliminated from all such considerations in 
the existing records. This is nothing short of extraordinary, 
in the light of his position and connections, and the known 
fact that he did own some land, must have lived on it, and 
his children were entitled to legal record of their inheritances. 
In only one brief mention is it evident that he sold land, 
where Thomas Bayes refers his own property, part of it being 
''that upland adjoining up to the old highway Some I bought 
of Mr. Mayhew the Younger." While he was one of the pa- 
tentees and so owned a moiety of the Vineyard, yet the home 
lot of his father is described in the usual way by metes and 
bounds, and only incidentally do we learn that he owned one. 
In a formal document drawn by Matthew Mayhew in 1685, 
disposing of the Lordship and Manor of Martha's Vineyard 
to Governor Dongan, certain exceptions of property are made, 
including land belonging originally to Rev. Thomas Mayhew, 
which is the first and only time that any definite realty hold- 
ings are referred to in any extant or known records. The 
document, after enumerating a number of tracts exempt from 
transfer, continues thus: "and also those two lots of land 

129 



History of Martha's Vineyard 



with their appurtenances in the town called Edgartown 
the one late the land of the aforesaid Thomas (Mayhew), 
the grandfather; and the other land of the aforesaid Thomas 
Mayhew (Junior) father of the said Matthew Mayhew: both 
lots containing about eighty acres." 

His wife bore him six children in all, of whom five reached 
adult life, married, and three perpetuated the name in the 
male line. In 1651, he had "three small children," probably 
Matthew, Thomas, and another, perhaps a daughter (to whom 
the name Abiah has been given, but it is unconfirmed), who 
probably died young. After his death, the Governor, in 1658, 
speaks of "my daughter and her 6 chilldren." Their names 
are as follows : — 

I. Matthew b. 1648 

II. b. 1649; d- young. 

III. Thomas b. 1650 - 

IV. John b. 165 1 or 2 
V. Jerusha b. about 1654 

12 April 1682. 
N. J. before 16^ 
VI. Jedidah b. 1656; m. Benjamin Smith, before April 1685 



m. (i) Joseph Wing of Sandwich 
(2) Thomas Eaton of Shrewsbury, 




ARMS OF MAYOW OF DINTON, WILTSHIRE. 

Argent, on a chevron sable between three birds [sea mews ?] of the last five lozenges 

of the first. {Berry's Dictionary, Papworth and Movant's 

Dictionary, and Burke's Armory.) 



130 



Independence of the Vineyard, 1642-1665 

CHAPTER X. 
Independence of the Vineyard, 1642-1665. 

By virtue of his purchase of the proprietorship of Martha's 
Vineyard from Sir Ferdinando Gorges and Lord StirHng, the 
elder Mayhew succeeded by reasonable implication at least 
to the powers of the late Lords Proprietors and, in accordance 
with the terms of the sale, he was to establish a government 
similar to that of the Massachusetts Bay. For reasons best 
known to himself and perhaps from the impracticability of 
launching a complete civil establishment on an island peopled 
with a scant hundred souls, no attempt appears to have been 
made by him to create "freemen" or provide for a suffrage. 
The elder Mayhew kept the reins in his own hands and that 
of his family. Naturally, he acted as the chief executive of 
the Vineyard at first, and soon came to be regarded as "Gov- 
ernor" de facto, as he was indeed proprietor of the soil de jure. 
How soon he came to be known as "Governor" is not of 
record, but certainly before 1657, when the Quakers visited 
the island and referred to him as the "Governor."^ Doubt- 
less this designation had been assumed by him and became 
of common acceptation for years before that date, due pri- 
marily to his proprietary rights, but largely to his strength 
of character and commanding personality. 

At first it made but little difference, practically, who con- 
stituted the official family, because the entire population was 
hardly more than a corporal's guard. Prior to 1650 it is 
probable that there may have been twenty men able to bear 
arms, and under circumstances of this character no large list 
of officials was required to transact the business affairs of the 
community. It is impossible to separate the general concerns 
of the Vineyard in respect to government at this period from 
the local affairs of Great Harbor, as there was but one set- 
tlement of whites on the island, and all were within this town- 
ship to the east of a line drawn from Watcha to Weahquit- 
taquay. The laws and regulations made for one covered the 
other. 

'Bishop, "New England Judged," 123. 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

Prior to 1650, the management of the local affairs, the 
ending of "controversies" and adjustment of legal questions, 
must have been by a sort of common consent, with Thomas 
Mayhew, Senior, acting as arbitrator and in a general ad- 
visory capacity. It is a matter of doubt whether there was 
such an ofScial as a notary or justice on the island whose 
jurat would be recognized. It is to be remembered that 
Martha's Vineyard belonged to no chartered province, as 
then understood, except its relation as an integral part of the 
territorial grants of Sir Ferdinando Gorges. Practically, at 
this time it was No Man's Land, and Mayhew could say with 
much truth, 

"I am monarch of all I survey. 
My right there is none to dispute." 

The Commissioners of the United Colonies, at their session 
begun Sept. 5, 1644, authorized Massachusetts to "receive 
Martin's Vineyard into their jurisdiction, if they saw cause." ^ 
But this absorption was not undertaken, and the island re- 
mained what it was, an independent, self-governing entity. 

THE FIRST GOVERNMENT. 

The first semblance of a form of government of record 
is found in the year 1653, when Thomas Mayhew, Sr., Nicholas 
Butler, John Bland, Richard Smith, John Smith, Peter Folger 
and Edward Searle were appointed to or chosen to "stand 
for a year," but in what capacity is not clear.^ It would seem 
a fairly sizable body to govern the little community, but it 
was a beginning. Doubtless, it was a sort of court of as- 
sistants to Mayhew as chief magistrate. The next year there 
was "chosen by the town to end all controversies by the same 
manner & way as did the last year, only if any one of the said 
number be wanting the rest are to choose another to fill up 
the number."^ Thomas Mayhew, Sr., Thomas Burchard, 
John Daggett, and Philip Taber were selected. 

The manner of electing officers was probably by the use 
of corn and beans as ballots. In the Massachusetts Colony 

'Hazard, Collections, H, i8. 
'Edgartown Records, I, 122. 

^Ibid., I, 121. It will be noticed that this reference particularizes the members 
as justices, and not as executives like selectmen. 

132 



Independence of the Vineyard, 1642-1665 

in 1643, whence came all of our early settlers, the following 
method was prescribed: "the freeman shall use Indian corn 
and Beanes, the Indian Corn to manifest Election, the Beanes 
contrary; and if any freeman shall put in more than one 
Indian Corn or Beane he shall forfeit for every such offence 
Ten Pounds," ^ An allusion to this custom is found in a 
Nantucket election which is thus described in 1676 by Peter 
Folger: "In the like uncivil manner they chose two young 
men more, the sayd Stephen [Hussey] bringing his corn which 
betoken Choice in his hand and called upon others to Corn 
this man and that man." ^ 

At this time Mayhew was following out in good faith the 
limitations or provisions of his patent from Stirling in respect 
to conducting the government like that of Massachusetts. 
Whether it was modelled after it in all particulars cannot be 
said with surety, but from a perusal of the records it appears 
that freemen were made, town meetings held, courts estab- 
lished and the franchise exercised by those entitled. The fol- 
lowing oath was administered to the Assistants of the Court : — 

You do hear swere By the Great Name of the Living God that you 
shall as Assistants unto the Magistrate execute justice on all cases that shall 
come Before you according to your Best understanding agreeably to the 
Law of God for the time you are chosen so help you God.^ 

On June 6, 1654, it was ordered that the seven men 
elected had power "to end all controversy except member, 
Life and Banishment," and were to sit as a quarterly court. 
Next year the number of assistants was reduced to five and 
the records are more explicit upon the powers delegated to 
them. On June 5, 1655, Mr. Thomas Mayhew was chosen 
"Magistrate" and Thomas Burchard, John Daggett, Peter 
Folger and Mr. Nicholas Butler were chosen assistants, and 
the following law was made regarding their functions : — 

These men are to attend all Controversies that shall arise in the to\\Ti 
for this year and they all to agree upon the Determination of every thing 
and if they cannot all agree then such cases are to be referred to the town 
to end, that is such as are admitted to be townsmen and the Magistrate hath 
power to end all Controversies not exceeding the value of five shillings.* 

'Mass. Col. Rec. 

^Letter Peter Folger to Sir Edmond Andros, in N. Y. Col. Mss. 

^Edgartown Records, I. 125. Dated Dec. 17, 1652. 

^bid., I, 119. 



133 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

Of course there was no higher authority for appeals, 
and this arrangement practically constituted the body of 
freemen as an appellate court, a most unusual example of 
democracy. 

MAYHEW IN SOLE AUTHORITY. 

In 1658, a change was made in the form of the governing 
body which was significant. Mr. Thomas Mayhew was 
chosen magistrate, but no assistants were elected and it was 
provided that "all cases are to be Ended this present year 
by the magistrate with an original jury which shall be chosen 
by the term consisting of such a number as the Town shall 
Judge needful," and town meetings were to be held quarterly 
for the purpose of electing jurymen.^ This had the effect of 
leaving Mayhew untrammeled in the management of affairs 
save as jurors came in quarterly to sit on cases, not as ad- 
visors, but arbitrators. 

The next year (1659) another change was made and 
again it was one that took the control of matters out of the 
hands of the freemen. Mayhew was chosen magistrate and 
it was provided that ''the form of government is the same 
that it was last year saving the claws touching appeals is laid 
by for this year." ^ The next year (1660), Mayhew was re- 
elected as usual without any assistants and it was again voted 
that ''the Government shall be carried on the same manner 
as it was last year and with the same exception concerning 
appeals."^ 

THE PEOPLE DISSATISFIED. 

By this time a number of new settlers had added to the 
numerical strength of the body of freemen, and it became 
necessary for Mayhew to fortify himself in his position with 
these people. Accordingly the next year, he drew up a curious 
form of "submission" for their signatures, which is here printed 
in full: — 

[DECEMBER 23, 1661I 

"These whose names are hereunder written do submit to the Govern- 
ment of the Pattent and do own it, that is, that it doth consist in the major 

^Edgartown Records, I, 157. 
^^Ibid., I, 158. 

'Ibid, I, 147. It was provided that "all meetings (of the court) are to continue 
till they are dissolved by the major part of the freemen." 



Independence of the Vineyard, 1642-1665 

part of the freeholders and a single person, most thinking Thomas Mayhew 
to be the single person according to the pattent: some there nott thinking 
Thomas Mayhew to Be the Single Person according to Pattent yet willing 
to own him to govern according to pattent: and Thomas Mayhew before 
the town did promise that when the major part of the freeholders shall 
question whether he be the Pattentee within the town bounds or themselves 
that he will defer that to equal judges for to determine that case between 
himself and them. 

Wee all own the Liberty the King Grants [ illegible ] confirms 

in his letter ^ 

This was signed by the following persons : — 

John Daggett Thomas Bayes John Gee 

Nicholas Norton, Thomas Jones James Pease 

Thomas Trapp John Edy William Weeks 

Edward Sale John Blan(d) Robert Codman 

Joseph Codman Richard Arey Thomas Daggett 

Richard Sarson James Covel Willm X Vinson 

It is apparent from internal evidence that the settlers must 
have begun to chafe under this personal government of the 
patentee, and the eighteen men who "submitted" included 
those who in later years openly rebelled against him and his 
government. Those who did not sign this submission were 
known to be adherents of his through family connection or 
for other reasons, and included Thomas Burchard, Nicholas 
Butler, Thomas Daggett, John Eddy, Peter Folger, Thomas 
Harlock, Richard Sarson, and John Smith. This submission 
placed the responsibility of government on a two-legged au- 
thority, the "major part of the freeman" and a "single person" 
and Mayhew as patentee claimed that he was the individual 
intended. But "most" of them did not agree to this inter- 
pretation, and on what it was based is not clear from any 
document yet come to light, but they were willing he should 
fill the position during their pleasure. This was doubtless 
the germ of Mayhew's plans to acquire absolute personal con- 
trol of the government of the Vineyard, and keep it in his own 
hands under guise of vested patent rights. The provision 
for arbitration of his ownership of the patent was a harmless 
concession as that right could not be successfully assailed. 
It was the claim of jurisdiction over persons and property 
under it that was of concern to the freeholders. The suc- 
ceeding entries in the records now take a new form: "it is 
agreed by the pattentees and freeholders" etc.,^ when votes 



^Edgartown Records, I, 144. 
^Ibid., I, 144. 



135 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

are entered, and from that time forward no further elections 
of a magistrate occurred or are recorded. 

THE PROVINCE OF MAINE AS SUZERAIN AUTHORITY. 

In 1663 occurs the significant entry of a certain action 
ordered "by the Single Person and the freeholders;"^ and in 
the same year we find this form used: ''itt is ordered by my 
self and the major part of the freeholders,"^ which would 
indicate that Mayhew himself made these records personally, 
though Richard Sarson, his prospective step-son-in-law, was 
given the place of recorder of the Courts that year. The 
situation thus developed existed for two years, when an event 
occurred which brought out a latent condition never before 
manifested. It seems that in 1665 Mayhew brought suit in 
the local court at Great Harbor against Joseph Codman 
of that town, for trespass, "for taking fish at Mattakess," 
and the verdict was returned for the defendant. This must 
have been a surprise to the "magistrate" to be defeated in 
his own court. The nature of the case appears trivial enough, 
but either some important legal principle was involved or else 
he wished to impress upon the freeholders that he would not 
submit to a defeat in law at their hands. ^ So he took counsel 
of his patent and determined to appeal. To whom? The 
Province of Maine, the territory belonging to Gorges from 
whom he had purchased the Vineyard a quarter of a century 
previous. It looks like a "play for position," as it was the 
first, as well as the last time, he essayed it. The town record 
reads : — 

.... Mr. Mayhew Before the Court doth appeal from the sentence 
of Court held upon the Vineyard March 29: 65, unto the Cheif & high Court 
and Counsell of the Province of Mayne : it is on the Case of Trespass touch- 
ing a Share of fish which this Court Possesseth Joseph Codman of, as I Judge 
not rightly." * 

It is interesting to know that at one time the authorities 
of the island owned political allegiance to the Province of 
Maine, and acted in accordance with this acknowledgment 

'Edgartown Records, I, 138. 

^Ibid., I, 143. 

'In the previous year Mayhew had been defeated in a case at Plymouth by John 
Daggett, concerning the "Farm" and it became necessary for him to maintain his 
prestige before the people by appealing. 

*Edgartown Records, I, 114. 

136 



Independence of the Vineyard, 1642-1665 

of dependency. As far as the author is aware, this incident 
of our history has never been formally disclosed, and as a 
result of an examination of the early records of the Vineyard, 
the subject as it unfolded itself is presented as one of the 
mutations of sovereignty through which the island has passed 
during its existence. The story of this situation is as follows : — 
When the council for New England resolved, in 1635, 
to parcel among the patentees the territory comprised in their 
jurisdiction, there fell to the lot of Sir Ferdinando Gorges 
that portion of the present State of Maine between the Pis- 
cataqua and the Kennebec, and the "Isles of Capawock and 
Nautican," while Lord Stirling drew the eastern half of Maine, 
from the river of Pemaquid to the St. Croix and "Matoax 
or the Long Island." In consequence of the nebulous ideas 
then prevailing respecting localities and names, these two 
patentees, or their agents, both laid claim to the sovereignty 
of Martha's Vineyard, then called, though erroneously, "Capo- 
wak." It is clear that the pretensions of James Forrett, the 
agent of the Lord Stirling in respect to the patent rights of the 
latter to Martha's Vineyard, were unfounded, and that Mayhew 
was deceived in that claim. *'Mr. Forrett went suddenly to 
England before he had showed me his Masters Pattent," 
v^rites Mayhew to Sir Edmund Andros, and he continues, 
"Some years after this came over Mr. Forrester furnished 
with Power, who was here with me and told me he would 
cleare up all Things." But this agent also failed to show 
Stirling's title, and he adds, "So we remained under Gorges." 

THE KING CONFIRMS THE GORGES TITLE. 

The death of Sir Ferdinando in 1647, the unsettled state 
of affairs during the Civil war and the Protectorate, left the 
question of jurisdiction pending, until the grandson of Gorges, 
Ferdinando, his namesake, sent over John Archdale in 1664, 
to look after his inherited proprietary rights in New England, 
and Archdale informed Mayhew that the king had "most 
strongly confirmed Ferdynando Gorges Esq. to be the Lord 
of the Province of Maine .... of which this (the Vineyard) 
be a Pt." This is Mayhew's own language, and it was in 
strict accordance with the facts in the case. For on June 21, 
1664, Ferdinando Gorges, the grandson, had publicly asserted 
his rights to his ancestral domain in New England under the 

137 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

territorial grants of April 3, 1638. This, he stated specifi- 
cally, included besides the Province of Maine "the island 
of Capawick & Nautican near Cape Codd, wch Island of 
Capawick is since called Martins Vineyard." In token of 
this assumption of proprietorship he appointed commissioners 
to govern the province and lands described/ 

The first intimation on our records of this acknowledg- 
ment by Mayhew of his dependency on Gorges occurs in the 
entry of the will of John Bland, dated Jan. 6, 1663, in which 
he calls himself '*of Martins Vineyard, or Belonging to the 
Province of Main."' Then followed this appeal to the 
I'Cheif & high Court and Counsell of the Province of Mayne" 
in 1665, and a third instance is the recording in the land 
records of that province of a deed in which Thomas Mayhew, 
on Sept. 27, 1666, conveyed to Thomas Oliver one of the 
Elizabeth Islands.^ 

But this situation was an unnatural one for two outlying 
and weak provinces, separated by such distance, and Mayhew 
found that the officials of Maine had but httle if any interest 
in him or his island. They were too busy struggling for their 
own existence at that time, trying to preserve their independence 
against the usurpation of the Massachusetts authorities, to 
waste any of their strength on an unknown and somewhat 
uncertain offspring. In this predicament Mayhew, who had 
already purchased his titles from Stirling, Gorges, and the 
Indians, now wrote to the Massachusetts officials for some 
advice in the matter, and he thus reports the result: ''I have 
the Testimony of the Generall Court of Boston for it which 
Court sent to the Gentiemen of the Province of Maine, whose 
answer was that it was in myself &c." Thus did the Gorges 
officials of that day disregard Sir Ferdinando's interests, and 
Mayhew continued to govern his patent by virtue of owner- 
ship of the soil. But what of the appeal against the verdict 
''for taking fish at Mattakess"? It was lost in the maze of 
territorial uncertainties, and it is doubtful if Mayhew ever 
took the trouble to certify it to the Maine courts. He had 
satisfied his dignity by the entry of the appeal on the records. 

'Baxter. "Life of Sir Ferdinando Gorges" (Prince Society Publications), III, 
303-306. 

^Edgartown Records, I, 54. 

^York County (Me.) Deeds, III, 114. 



138 




THK DUKE OF YORK 

I.OKD PROPRIETOR OF MARTHA'S VINEYARD 



Sale of the Islands to Duke of York 



CHAPTER XL 
Sale of the Islands to Duke of York in 1663. 

Meanwhile another factor, momentous for Vineyard his- 
tory, was entering the field of colonial enterprise and man- 
agement, it being none other than a member of the royal 
family, James, Duke of York, who entered into negotiations 
in 1663 for the purchase of the Stirling patents. The Stirling 
earldom passed in 1640, on the death of the first earl, to his 
grandson and heir William, who, himself dying only a few 
months later, was succeeded by his uncle Henry, third earl in 
succession. This lord had given no thought, practically, 
to his American interests, and was doubtless glad enough to 
find a purchaser. 

In 1663, the Earl of Clarendon, on behalf of the Duke 
of York, purchased of Henry, then Earl of Stirling, his in- 
terest in American grants, including, besides that of Maine, 
the title of Long Island, Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, and 
other islands adjacent. 

The consideration of this purchase was ;;^3,5oo, but upon 
failure of payment, a life annuity of ;^3oo was, in June, 1674, 
agreed upon, payable out of the "surplusage of the net profits" 
of revenue arising from the colony, which proving insufficient, 
an order was issued in 1689 for arrears to be paid out of the 
funds of the colony. A descendant of Lord Stirling asserted 
that his ancestor never received either purchase money or 
pension.^ On March 12, 1664-65, Charles the Second 
granted to James, Duke of York, the Patent of New York, 
Pemaquid (Maine), Long Island, "and allsoe all those severall 
Islands called or known by the names of Martin's Vineyard 
and Nantukes otherwise Nantukett."^ It seemed to make 
no difference that these last-named places belonged to another 
by royal patent, and loyal subjects were expected to give way 
and vacate the "king row." 

'Duer. "Life of Lord Stirling," 37-39. 
^Regent's Report (Albany, 1874), I. 10-21. 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

THE GORGES TITLE IGNORED. 

Curiously enough, the Gorges interest was not bought 
by the duke, and no attempt seems to have been made to 
revive it, though it was the best-estabhshed title to the island. 
If it be held that when Massachusetts purchased the Province 
of Maine in 1678, she acquired the sovereignty of Martha's 
Vineyard and Nantucket, though not expressed in the deed 
of sale as being a part of that province, it would seem that 
the sovereignty reverted to the crown. In those days, how- 
ever, geography was little known and a "claim" was almost 
as good as a patent. Doubtless Mayhew was as mixed up 
as the rest of them in these conflicting claims. Col. Richard 
Nicolls, one of the royal commissioners sent over in 1665, 
took the subject under his consideration during his term of 
service here, and "a little before he went Home for England," 
says Mayhew again, "did acknowledge that the Power of 
these Islands was proper in the hands of Sir Ferdinando 
Gorges."^ This chain of authority seems to establish the 
proprietorship safely in the hands of Gorges, and it is evi- 
dent from the first that Mayhew really regarded him as the 
lawful suzerain of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. 

ORGANIZATION OF THE DUKE'S PROVINCE. 

The purchase of the title having been completed, the 
king was induced by Lord Clarendon to affix his signature 
to a patent investing the Duke of York with sovereign rights 
over the territory. Clarendon lost no time in attaching the 
seals to this document, which was dated March 12, 1664, 
and James was forthwith in full possession and lordship of 
a small empire of his own, although it was then in the actual 
possession of the Dutch. The territory covered by the patent, 
since known as New York, New Jersey, and Delaware, was 
to be held of the king in free and common soccage and by 
the payment of a yearly quit-rent of forty beaver skins, if 
demanded. The duke was invested with "full and absolute 
power and authority to correct, punish, pardon, govern, and 

^In a letter to Nicolls dated Aug. 17, 1667, Mayhew wrote: "this is all that I 
desire to Injoy my graunte, from the one or the other uppon the concideration men- 
tioned therein wch I hope I have noe just cause to feare on either syde, if the matter 
had beene Issued, on yor honors pte. I had soon repayred or sent to New York, 
but the gentlemen to the eastward they looke at it as to gourment to be under them." 
(Colonial Papers, P. R. O., XXI. 93.) 

140 



Sale of the Islands to Duke of York 

rule" all British subjects according to the laws he might 
establish, or the "good discretions" of his deputies in cases 
of necessity, provided they should not be in contravention 
of the statutes of the realm. He had authority to appoint 
and discharge all officers, regulate trade, emigration and land 
tenure, execute martial law and proceedings in banishment. 
Altogether it was a distinct advance in despotism over the 
charters previously sealed to American proprietaries and has 
been characterized as "the most impudent ever recorded in 
the colonial archives of England." ^ 

Such was the character of the new governing power 
which was to absorb Martha's Vineyard. The Duke was a 
Roman Catholic and in the course of his proprietorship he 
sent over governors of the province of his own religious be- 
lief, mostly roystering cavaliers or court favorites, and the 
composition of the fabric created by the king was as strange 
to the simplicity and bucolic solitude of the island as would 
have been a government at the hands of the Mahommedans. 

COL. RICHARD NICOLLS, ACTING GOVERNOR. 

The duke did not take immediate steps to enter upon 
his domain, for the reason as stated that it was in the hands 
of the enemies of England, the Dutch, when he bought it. 
Colonel Nicolls at first acted in behalf of the new proprietor 
and he entered into a desultory correspondence with Mayhew 
about the situation of affairs as it affected the Vineyard. 
Nicolls was a Royalist partisan whose particular business 
during the three years he was on this side was to curb the 
growing independence of the Massachusetts government, and 
it has been seen that he regarded the Province of Maine, 
which he had lately wrested from the control of Massachu- 
setts, as the legal authority over this island. Nicolls' power, 
however, was plenary, and he was looked to by Mayhew 
to settle matters satisfactorily; besides he was in the royal 
service and he probably desired to please his masters and 
give them the benefit of any doubtful interpretations. As 
the Province of Maine was unable to prevent the usurpation 
of her powerful neighbor, Nicolls probably felt that if he 
turned over the Vineyard to its jurisdiction that it would be 
swallowed up by Massachusetts later on. 

'Brodhead, "History of New York," II, 17. 

141 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

In August, 1667, Mayhew wrote him a letter in which 
he detailed the steps he had taken to purchase the Vineyard 
of Lord Stirling and Sir Ferdinando Gorges, and asking his 
advice in the matter. In November following a shipwreck 
occurred at Tarpaulin Cove and the cargo was looted by the 
Indians. Mayhew reported this at once to Nicolls, who in 
his reply, dated Jan. 3, 1667-68, at Fort James (New York 
City), said among other things: "I see it is high time for 
mee to putt forth my authority to strengthen your hands by 
a speciall commission in this case, and allso to give you 
some generall heads of direction." ^ To this he adds the 
following significant statement: "I have not been forward 
in triviall cases to contest for my masters bounds, knowing, 
however, that all the Islands, except Block Island, from Cape 
Cod to Cape May are included in my masters patent. The 
first scruples will be soone removed: however in cases of this 
consequence I must declare myselfe both in point of power 
and readiness to protect and defend my masters honour and 
interest."' This was the first intimation of the coming change 
in political events relating to the Vineyard, but the transition 
was not to take place under Nicolls, as the latter was recalled 
by the king to make a personal report of affairs here in the 
summer of 1668, and he was succeeded at once by a repre- 
sentative of the duke's entourage. Colonel Francis Lovelace. 

FRANCIS LOVELACE, GOVERNOR. 

This gentleman, then about sixty years of age, was the 
second son of Sir Richard, afterward Baron Lovelace of 
Hurley, Berkshire, by his wife Margaret, daughter of William 
Dodsworth, citizen of London. Lovelace was a type of the 
cavalier to be seen about the festive court of the "Merrie 
Monarch," the direct antithesis of the colonists whom he was 
sent over to govern, but as it turned out he administered the 
affairs of the province with moderation and to the satisfaction 
of all classes.^ He proceeded with deliberation as far as 
the Vineyard was concerned, for it was not till after a year 

^A commission of three was appointed, and the names of his associates left to be 
inserted by Mayhew. 

'N. Y. Col. Doc. Ill, 169. 

'His wife was Mary, daughter of William King, "a person much below his quality 
and condition, whom he was inveighled to marry without the privity of his relations." 
(Hist. Mss. Com. 7th Report, App. p. 144.) Lovelace's grandson John, became 4th 
Baron Lovelace, and Governor of the Province of New York early in the next century. 

142 



Sale of the Islands to Duke of York 

had elapsed that another shipwreck on the island brought 
matters to a head/ On Sept. 7, 1669, Governor Lovelace 
wrote as follows to Mayhew : — 

THE GOVERNORS L""^ CONCERNING THE BARKE CAST AWAY AT MARTYNS 

VINEYARD. 

Sr. 

Haueing lately had Intelligence of the Shipwrack of a certaine Barke, 
belonging to Mr. Cutts of Piscataway loading wth Barbadoes Goods driuen 
on Shoare at Martyns Vyneyard wthout any man left aliue in her or othr 
lining Creature out of wch said Barke as I am Informed there haue beene 
about 40 hogshds of Rume & othr goods saued, And that the Barke being 
repayred & fitted is ready to sett out to Sea, Indeed I did Expect an Ac- 
count of this Accident from yorselfe or some one of that Plantation sooner 
than by this unexpected way from a Boston vessell, But however I doe thinke 
it requisite an Enquiry should be made into the matter, I shall therefor desire 
you and do herewth likewise Empower yo wth two more of yor neighbours 
whom you shall thinke fitt to take an Exact Account of what Goods were 
saued out of her, to see that they as well as the Barke be putt into the hands 
of responsible p'sons, as also the manner of the Barkes comeing on Shoare, 
so that neithr the Duke be defrauded of his Dues if the Barke shall proue a 
Wreck, or the Owners of what property doth belong unto them ; As my 
Predecessor Coll Nicolls did often expect you here, but had his Expectation 
frustrated by yor age or Indisposition I haue the same desire, or at least that 
amongst yor Plantation, you would depute some pson to me to give me 
Account of Affaires there, That being undr the same Govemmt belonging 
to his Royall Highnesse I may be in a bettr Capacity of giving you such 
Advice & assistance as need shall require & send his Royall Highnesse a 
more Exact Account of you then as yett I can, you being the greatest Strangrs 
to me in the whole Govemmt. So expecting as speedy a Retorne from you 
in Answr hereunto as can be I comitt you to the heavenly protection & re- 
mayne. 

Septbr 7th 1669. 

MAYHEW IGNORES THE NEW AUTHORITY. 

But Mayhew by this time had become used to the various 
transfers of lordships and claims and what at first worried 
now palled on him. He allowed the matter to stand, think- 
ing, possibly, that another owner would develop if he waited 
long enough. John Gardner wrote that the "mesage was so 
far slighted as to take no notice of it." ^ Six months later 
he answered it, and the reply was received by Governor Love- 



^This was a bark from Barbadoes, owned by Mr. Richard Cutts, of Portsmouth, 
N. H., and all on board were lost. Part of the cargo was saved, and she was refitted. 
(N. Y. Col. Mss. Orders, Warrants, Letters, 1665-1691, p. 523.) 

*N. Y. Col. Mss. XXVI. Gardner to Lovelace. 



143 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

lace at a meeting of the Governor and Council held on May 14, 
1670, at Fort James. It was brought by Matthew Mayhew 
whom the chief magistrate of the Vineyard had sent as a 
special messenger. 

The minutes of the council meeting at this session are 
as follows : — 

Mr. Mayhews Business of Martins Vineyard to be taken into con- 
sideration first. 

A Letter from Mr. Mayhew produced and read wherein hee desires to 
bee resolved in what Nature Martins Vineyard and those Parts are as to 
Government.^ 

The Patent of the Duke includes Martins Vineyard and those other 
Isles. 

It is ordered that a Letter be sent to Mr. Mayhew to desire him, accord- 
ing to his proffer, to take a Journey hither, to consult about those Parts and 
their settlem[en]t and that hee give Notice to those of Plymouth Colony, 
Rhode Island or any other that have any prtences, or lay Clayme to any of 
those Islands, to lett them know that within the space of two months the 
Governor intends to settle those Parts, soe that they may doe well to come 
or send some Agent to act for them, otherwise after that time all the Pr[e]- 
tences or Claymes will be judged of noe validity. 

Mr. Mayhew is to bee desired to bring all his Patents, Writings and 
other Papers relating hereunto with him. 

The Dukes Patent, wherein Martins Vineyard is included is shown 
to young Mr. Mayhew." ^ 

The "Letter to be sent to Mr Mayhew" was written by 
the governor on May i6th, and doubtless it was carried to 
the Vineyard by Matthew on his return trip. It is as follows : — 

Mr. Mayhew: 

I received yor Ire by yr Grandchild, wherein I am informed upon what 
Termes you have hitherto held yor land at Martin's Vineyard and Parts 
adjacent, but the pretences of Sr Ferdinando Gorges and the Lord Sterling 
being now at an end and his Royall Highnesse absolutely invested in the 
Right to those Islands, the Inhabitants are henceforth to have directions 
of the Government from this Place. I doe admire it hath beene so longe 
before you have made yor Application to me, since yor addressing yorselfe 
for Reliefe against the Indians in a Businesse of a wreck to my Predecessor 
and his Commission to you thereupon, did intimate an Acknowledgement 
of being under his Royall Highness his Protection. Upon notice this last 
Yeare of the like Misfortune of a wreck upon your Island I sent Directions 
to you how to proceed thereupon, of wch I expect an account, but have as 
yett heard nothing of it ; but when you come hither, as you propose and wch 
I very much desire, I make no Question of receiving Satisfaction therein 
from you, as well as in diverse Particulars. You may please to take yor 

'This letter is not now in the State Archives of New York. 
^N. Y. Col. Mss. Council Minutes, III, 26. 

144 



Sale of the Islands to Duke of York 

best Tyme of coming this Summer, as you shall find yourselfe disposed. 
I pray bring all your Patents, Deeds or other Writings wth you, relating to 
those partes, by the wch and by or Consultations together I may receive such 
Intelligence of the Affairs there as I may the better take order for the future 
good settlement of those Islands. 

As to any Pretenders who lay clayme to any of them wch are deemed 
to bee within the Dukes Patent, I have thought fitt to appoint (two) months 
Time for all Persons within this Government or without, either by them- 
selves or by their Agents, to appeare here before me to make good their 
Claymes or Pretences, the wch if any of them shall neglect to doe, (having 
timely notice thereof), such Claymes or Pretences shall be judged of no 
Validity. I have in Part discoursed of these Affaires wth yor Grandchild, 
but refer the remainder untill yor arrivall here where you shall receive a 
very hearty welcome, and all due Encouragement as to your particular Con- 
cerns from 

Your affectionate humble servant 

FRANS: LOVELACE 
Fort James in N. Yorke 
May 1 6th, 1670. 

I pray you send copies of the enclosed Orders of Notice to all those 
about you who are concerned.^ 

This very cordial letter was received by Mayhew with 
apparent indifference, if we may judge by his inaction. John 
Gardner of Nantucket comments on this lack of deference 
to the mandates of authority in a letter as follows: "the Right 
Honorabell Col Loflas comeing Governor did again send out 
his warrant for Persons here consemed to apear before him 
within fouer Months to make out ther Claymes, or elce all 
ther Claymes should be ever after voyd to all Intents.' The 
Copy of this was sent to those of the Purchasers yet in the 
Masetusets and the Inhabitance heaer wayted on them about 
one Year after the Time o-iven them before thev mad ther 
Apearance Acording to Warrant."^ Probably the old gentle- 
man made sufficient excuses to the royal governor for the 

'N. Y. Col. Mss. Court of Assize, II, 538. 

''The following is a copy of the notice sent by Lovelace to all "pretenders: " 

"These are to give Notice to all Persons concerned who lay clayme or have any 
pretence of Interest in Martyn's Vineyard, Nantuckett or any of the Elizabeth Isles 
neare adjacent, and within his Royall Highness his Pattent, that they appeare before 
mee in Person or by their agents to make Proofe of such Claymes and pretences within 
the space of 4 months after the date hereof. 

In default whereof all such Claymes or Pretences after the Expiration of the said 
Time shall be deemed and adjudged invalid to all Intents and Purposes. 

Given under my Hand and Sealed with the Seale of the Province at Fort James 
in New Yorke this i6th day of May in the 22th yeare of his Ma'ties reign Annoq. 
Domini, 1670. 

FRANCIS LOVELACE. 

■■'N. Y. Col. Mss. vol. XVI. 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

delay which followed, as there is no further correspondence 
on file showing any resentment at the year's interval which 
elapsed after these notices. Probably Mayhew was waiting 
for "something to turn up," as in the past, but now further 
delay meant a rebuff, and it became necessary to obey the 
summons. 

For thirty years, since 1641, he had been responsible to 
none, and now he was facing a crisis in his affairs at the sum- 
mons of an unknown master, set in authority over him by his 
"dread Sovereign Lord," Charles the King. Fortified with 
his muniments of title derived from Lord Stirling and Sir 
Ferdinando Gorges, Mayhew set sail from Great Harbor in 
the latter part of June, 1671 [probably the 22d], accompanied 
by his grandson Matthew, who represented the interests in- 
herited from Thomas Mayhew, Jr., co-patentee and proprie- 
tor, deceased. The inhabitants of the Vineyard awaited the 
outcome with intense interest. 




FORT JAMES, NEW YORK, 1671 

KROM AUGUSTINE HERRMAN'S ENGRAVING IN MONTANUS 



146 



The Conference at Fort James, 1671 



CHAPTER XII. 

The Conference at Fort James, 1671. 

Mayhew must have arrived in New York some days in 
advance of the meeting of the governor and council, and 
utilized the intervening time in personal consultations with 
the officials about his affairs. This regular meeting of the 
council was not held till about a fortnight later, and the only 
"Business under consideracon was Mr. Mayhew's Affayre 
about Martins Vineyard." 




THE PROVINCIAL HOUSE, NEW YORK, 

WHERE THE CONFERENCES WERE HELD.' 

At this important conference held at Fort James, begin- 
ning July 6, 167 1, and continuing through the six follow^ing 
days, there were present the governor, Francis Lovelace, Mr. 
Steenwyck of the council, and the secretary of the colony, 
Matthias Nicolls, as representatives of the Duke. Across the 
table sat Thomas Mayhew and his eldest grandson, then a 
young man of twenty-three years. Colonel Lovelace, the 
royal and ducal governor, was of course the dominating figure. 
As one of the favorite courtiers and a type of the roystering 
cavaliers of the Restoration, he was a fitting representative 
of the "Merrie Monarch," and his brother James. The Duke 
of York, it will be remembered, was a Roman Catholic, and 

'This was the ancient Stadt Huys of the Dutch Government of New Amsterdam. 

147 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

so was the king at heart, but as the head of a Protestant nation 
his sentiments were not publicly avowed. In this conference 
Governor Lovelace sat as the embodiment of all that was 
diametric in habit and religion to the Puritan Mayhew, and 
doubtless the latter was uncertain about the attitude which 
this "Popish" official, his new master, would assume towards 
him. 

In compliance with "Mayhew's Peticon and Proposalls" 
it was decided "that the Townes seated there shall have 
Patents of Confirmation," that Mayhew's grants be recorded, 
and to define how much he owned and what was left unpur- 
chased. Mayhew later wrote of this conference: "I shewed 
him my graunt which he approved of and the printed paper 
from his Ma'tie: at which he stumbled much: allso I showed 
him what General Nycoll had written me of his not being 
informed what his Ma'tie had done: thereat he stumbled very 
much likewise: then I asked him yf he had the Lord Ster- 
lings pattent by him, he said noe: I answered then I was at 
a losse: I sent to Captaine Nycoll and acquainted him with 
our discourse and prayed him to search in matters of Long 
Hand & see yf he could not find the date of Lord Sterlings 
pattent, yf not I could do2 nothing at York, which he did finde 
& it was more antient than Gorges." ^ 

MAYHEW APPOINTED GOVERNOR FOR LIFE. 

On the next day, the 7th, most important business was 
concluded, and is best told in the records of that session of 
the council, of which the following is an extract: — 

Whereas JNIr. Thomas Mayhew of Martin or Martha's Vineyard hath 
been an ancient Inhabitant there where by God's blessing hee hath been an 
Instrumt of doeing a great Deale of Good both in settling several! Plant- 
aeons there as also in reclayming and civilizing the Indians : for an Encour- 
agemt to him in the Prosecution of that Designe, and Acknowledgment of 
his Good services : It is ordered and agreed upon that the said Mr. Thomas 
Mayhew shall dureing his naturall life bee Governor of the Island called 
Martin's or Martha's Vineyard, both over the English Inhabitants and 
Indians, for the wch hee shall have a Commission. 

This most extraordinary and undemocratic proceeding 
is calculated to provoke an inquiry as to its intent. The 
beneficiary was then in his eightieth year, and it can be in- 
ferred that Lovelace and his advisors considered the risk 
about at its termination, and that the life tenure of a man 
four score years old would not be a very long one. It violated 

IN. Y. Col. Mss. XXIV, 92. 
148 



The Conference at Fort James, 1671 

all the principles of his original grant, and defied the pre- 
vailing sentiments of the people with whom he had been 
associated for many years, yet he allowed himself to become 
the recipient of it, as we have no record of any objection on 
his part to the measure. It gave rise to the greatest disorders 
as a consequence, and for years proved to be the foundation 
of bitter divisions between the people of the island. The 
following is a copy of the commission issued to him on this 
date : — 

FRANCIS LOVELACE Esq. &c — Whereas I have conceived a good 
Opinion of the Capacity and Integrity of Mr. Thomas Mayhew to be 
Governour and Cheife Magistrate of the Island Martin's or Martha's 
Vineyard to manage pubHc Affayres with the Aid and Good Advice of the 
Assistants to bee chosen there, and have thought fitt to Nominate Con- 
stitute and Appoint Mr. Thomas Mayhew to be Govern'our and Cheife 
Magistrate of the said Island Martin's or Tvlartha's Vineyard during his 
Naturall Life in the Management of wch Employment hee is to use his best 
Skill and Endeavour to preserve his Majesties Peace and to keep the In- 
habitants in good order. 

And all Persons are hereby required to give to the said Mr. Thomas 
Mayhew such Respect and Obedience as belongs to a Person invested by 
Commission and authority from his Royall Highness in the office and 
Employment of a Governour and Cheife Magistrate in the Island aforesaid. 
And hee the said Mr. Thomas Mayhew is duely to Observe and obey such 
Orders and Instructions wch are already given for the well governing of the 
Place or such other Directions as from Time to Time he shall receive from 
mee: And for whatsoever the said Mr. Thomas Mayhew shall lawfully 
act or doe in Prosecucon of the Premises This my Commission shall bee his 
sufficient Warrant and Discharge. 

Given &c this 8th Day of July in the 23rd year of his Majesties Reigne 
Annoq. Dni., 1671.^ 

It was decided by the council that the governor should 
have three assistants to be chosen annually by the two towns 
of Edgartown and Tisbury, who should constitute with him 
a court, to be held for cases involving five pounds and under. 
In case of disagreement Governor Mayhew was to have a 
double vote, without appeal. All actions above five and under 
fifty pounds were referable to a general court composed of 
himself and two assistants, to be elected by the two islands, 
"where it is recommended that Mr. Thomas Mayhew doe 
preside and sit as President dureing his Life (although the 
Court bee held at Nantuckett), with privilege of a double or 
casting voice, in regard of his great Experience and Reputacon 
amongst them: but after his Decease that the Rules and In- 

^N. Y. Col. Mss. Deeds, III, 70. 

149 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

structions wch concerne both the Islands be punctually fol- 
lowed and observed." ^ 

In addition to these definite and special laws and rules 
passed by the governor and council, Lovelace thought it pru- 
dent to issue a sort of political testament to Mayhew instruct- 
ing him how to regard his trust, and what actions he should 
take in the premises before assuming the ofhcial functions 
of the place. These instructions are recorded in the following 
document: — 

Although by your Gen'l Commission you have Strength and Authority 
sufficient to putt such Lawes and Rules in Execucon as you shall conceive 
may best tend to the Distribucon of Justice and securing the Comon Rights 
and Interests of such as shall live under yor Governmt the keeping his 
Majesties Peace, together wth the Preservation of his Royall Highness' 
Interest and Propriety in these parts, yet since that Commishon may ap- 
peare to be too generall, I have thought fitt to prescribe to you some par- 
ticular Instructions wch you are to make use of as occasion shall serve. 

In the first place you are soe soon as you shall arrive in some convenient 
Time cause a Generall ^Meeting to be summoned of the Inhabitants (amongst 
wch I would not have chiefs of the Indyans omitted), to whom you are to 
Declare the End of yor being wth mee and the Power I have invested you 
in, by causing your Commission to be read publiquely together with your 
Instructions. 

You are then to Consider and appoint a sett Time for the Election of 
yor Associates, as likewise to Consider of the Time when the Generall Court 
shall be summoned, of wch you are to Advertize and Consult yor Neigh- 
bours of Nantuckett. 

You are likewise to acquaint the Inhabitants the Priviledges I have 
graunted them by enfranchizing them in Towne Corporacon: To whom 
you may deliver their Charter. Upon the Receipt of wch they may proceed 
to the Election of their Magistrates as belongs to other Corporacons. 

And in regard at this Distance and the Unacquaintedness of the In- 
clinacons and Dispositions of the Indyans I cannot prescribe you any Rules 
that may be most proper for them, I shall therefore recommend that Affayre 
wholly to your prudent Management, only you may acquaint them that 
having now taken them unto his Royall Highness' particular Protection I 
shall be very carefull to Assist them in all Extremities: expecting from them 
noe other Returne but that they live quietly and peaceably wth true sub- 
mission to that Authority wch now is sett over them. 

You are to cause some of the Principall Sachems to repaire (as speedily 
as they can) to mee, that soe they may pay their Homage to his Ma'tie and 
acknowledge his Royall Highness to bee their only Lord Proprietor. 

You are to encourage and sett to worke the Sewan making, to whom you 
may give full assurance they shall receive sufficient Recompence for their 
Labour. And that that Trade may only be drove between them and this 
place you are not to permit any Shells to bee exported to Forrainers, unless 
they pay a Considerable Custome for them. ^ 

IN. Y. Col. Mss. Deeds, III, 75. 

^It is believed that "Sewan makiag" relates to the stringing of wampum fathoms 
of the special shells of which it was composed. It is from the Dutch — Zee Wand. 



The Conference at Fort James, 1671 

You are not to faile to give mee a speedy Advertizement of all yor 
Transactions as may bee, and by all meanes lett mee have from you how 
Affayres constantly stand. 

You are to see the collection of his Majesties Customes and all fines 
bee duely observed and you are to Assist upon all Occasions the Collector 
of the Customes in the Execucon of his office and transmit them to mee 
heere.^ 

You are to cause all such as shall bee Elected to any Publick office of 
Trust to take the Oath of Allegiance to his Ala'tie at the Entrance into 
their office. 

You are not to suffer any of yor Indyans to enter into any Confederacy 
of Warre wth any other forraine Indyans wthout advertizing me first with 
it and procuring my Permission for it. 

Some special provisions were formulated for the man- 
agement of the Indians, which will be referred to in the sec- 
tion devoted to their concerns, but it will suffice to state here 
that the elder Mayhew was made "Governor over the Indians," 
and as his instructions show, was required to do certain speci- 
fied things for their benefit. In addition to this he obtained 
from Lovelace a "Lycence unto Mr Thomas Mayhew & 
Matthew Mayhew his Grand Child in his Royall Highness 
his Name to Treat, Agree upon, & Conclude wth the Indyan 
Proprietors of the said Land undisposed of, & upon the 
Returne thereof unto mee, I shall bee ready to Graunt such 
Confirmacon as shall bee requisite."^ 

PROVISIONS FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT. 

The session of the governor and council, in the con- 
sideration of the affairs of Martha's Vineyard, lasted one 
week, and in addition to the results above related several 
minor matters were dealt with. Noman's Land came in 
for some attention, and "Mr. Mayhew and Mr. Brenton's 
Pretences upon the Elizabeth Islands discorst of," which will 
have fuller consideration in the proper chapters relating to 
those localities. The most beneficial result of the week's 
work was the incorporation of the two settlements of Great 
Harbor and Middletown (Takemmy), by which the towns- 
people of those villages acquired important privileges which, 
in a degree, minimized the ominous tendencies of the other 

'Matthew Mayhew was commissioned as the first collector of Customs for "all 
such Customable Goods as now are or shall bee brought into the Harbour at Martins 
Vineyard, or any other Creek or Place upon the Island." His commission was dated 
July 8, 1671, concurrent with all the charters issued at this conference. (N. Y. Col. 
Mss., Deeds, III, 73.) 

^N. Y. Col. Mss., Council Minutes, III, 68-71. Dated July 12, 1671. 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

proceedings by which life tenure was conferred upon the chief 
magistracy and exclusive privileges were centered in the May- 
hew family. These will be treated under each respective 
town history, together with the particular grant of medieval 
manorial rights to the elder Mayhew and his grandson Matthew. 
The last day of the session was taken up with the subject 
of the quit-rents, and it was finally "agreed to be 6 Barrells 
of Fish, vizt: two Barrells each Patent," meaning two each 
for Edgartown, Tisbury and the Manor of Tisbury, to be 
paid annually. As a last act, upon request of Mayhew, the 
governor wrote a letter of recommendation to Governor 
Hinckley of Plymouth Colony in favor of Mayhew's work 
among the Indians, and suggesting that "some enlargmt of 
Recompence" be awarded to him for his 'Taines and Trouble." ^ 

Altogether it was a most satisfactory seven days work 
for Mayhew and his interests. He was now a Governor "for 
life," Chief Justice of the Courts of Martha's Vineyard and 
Nantucket, Lord of the Manor of Tisbury, and Matthew had 
been made collector and receiver of the customs for the Vine- 
yard. How long he remained in this congenial company is 
not known, but in a letter vn"itten some weeks later he says: 
"I was but 29 dales from the Island in my Journey to York 
the Thursday month I went from home," and he adds, with 
some reasonable show of feeling, "laus deo,"" as well he 
might. The "Popish" governor had been indeed gracious 
to the Puritan. 

In what manner of rejoicing the inhabitants of the Vine- 
yard marked the return of the Worshipful Thomas Mayhew, 
"Governor of Martin's or Marthas Vineyard," and the new 
collector of customs is not known, but from the subsequent 
occurrences it may be inferred that the information which was 
laid before them produced no demonstrations of approval, 
at least any which were conspicuous for their spontaneity. 
We are to suppose that the governor obeyed his instructions, 
and shortly after his arrival caused a "Generall Meeting to 
be summoned of the Inhabitants" to whom he related the 
results of his conferences with the royal governor, and to whom 
his commission as governor with the accompanying instruc- 
tions was "read publiquely." He also, if he carried out these 
instructions, delivered to the people their town charters, ex- 
plaining to them the " priviledges " thereunder, and instructing 

'N. Y. Col. Mss., Deeds, III, 67, 74. 
^Records of the New England Company, p. 43. 



The Conference at Fort James, 1671 

them to proceed to elect magistrates according to the terms 
granted. It is presumed that all this was carried out with 
good faith, as we learn that the injunction to notify the Indians 
of the new order of things was thus fulfilled. '* Since I came 
home," he wrote to Governor Prence of Plymouth, under 
date of August 19th (1671), "I sent for all the sachems and 
chief men, acquainting them with what was done." ^ Mayhew 
says that the sachems "did, with much thankfulness, submit 
unto his honor's act in setting me over them;" but they were 
accustomed to hereditary privileges and life tenures, under 
the great sagamores. What the freemen of the English race 
really thought of it Mayhew found out two years later. 

With that deliberation which characterized all his actions 
in these matters Mayhew delayed the inauguration of the new 
governmental order of things, and eleven months elapsed 
before a "General Court" was held upon the Vineyard. 
The meeting of "The first General Court holden at Edgar- 
towne upon Marthas Vineyard the i8th of June 1672" sig- 
nalized the earliest fruit of the series of enfranchisements 
granted by Lovelace the year previous. At this court laws 
were passed providing for annual sessions of the court, the 
pay of the president and assistants, rules of procedure in 
suits at law, witnesses, evidences, fines, and other penalties 
in relation thereto, probate practice, sumptuary statutes, 
defined misdemeanors, provided for necessary officials, as 
constables, bailiffs, secretary, treasurer, with salaries for each, 
all of which constitute our first "Body of Liberties" in col- 
lected form. Matthew Mayhew was the first secretary, be- 
ginning his long career of office holding, under the auspices 
of the Duke's government.^ 

h Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll. VI. 196. 

^These laws are to be read in the first book of Deeds, at Edgartown, and have 
beenfprinted by Hough, in "Nantucket Papers," and a copy is on deposit at the Sec- 
retaryj,of State's Office, Albany, in Deeds, I, 78. 



(^jhtr/ic-u , 




SIGNATURE OF GOVERNOR LOVELACE 

FROM THB TISBURY CHARTER 
1671 



153 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

CHAPTER XIII. 

The "Dutch" Rebellion, 1673. 

In the early part of July, 1673, Matthew Mayhew was 
on his way to New York, "furnished to pay the Acknowledg- 
ment of six barrels of Merchantable Cod-Fish," which by the 
terms of the patents came due on the 12th of that month, 
and the quit rent was to be satisfied to Governor Lovelace 
as usual. On the voyage thither, he "met the news that 
Yorke was taken by the Dutch," and so it proved. The 
doughty Dutch admiral had surprised the city during the 
absence of Lovelace in Boston, secured possession with scarcely 
the semblance of a struggle, and New York was once more 
New Amsterdam. Mayhew retraced his journey. 

This was an event of signal importance to the Vineyard, 
and when Matthew Mayhew returned to the island with his 
"yearly acknowledgment" of six barrels of fish undelivered, 
and reported that the Duke's government in New York was 
at an end, it was the opportunity for the enemies of Mayhew 
to act. The ducal sovereignty having fallen, so with it fell 
the life tenure of his governor, and Martha's Vineyard was 
now in a political interregnum. As the island was not under 
the jurisdiction of Peter Stuyvesant, the last Dutch governor, 
when the New Netherlands was wrested from him, so it was 
not comprehended at this time in the revived Dutch Province 
now organized under Anthony Colve.^ The men who had 
been chafing for two years under the Mayhew family rule, 
with the head of the house as governor for life, his grandson, 
Matthew, an assistant and collector of customs; Thomas 
Daggett, his son-in-law, another assistant; Richard Sarson, 
a step-son-in-law, assistant; and Matthew Mayhew, secretary 
of the county, and other offices held by other members of the 
family, now resolved to deliver the island from this narrow- 
nepotism maintained for the benefit of a few. 

MUTINOUS VINEYAHDERS. 

They took the ground, and properly too, that the island 
was "virtually taken and bee under the govournment of the 

^N. Y. Col. Doc. II, 528-Q, 571, 609-10; III, 201; Smith, New York, I, 44-46; 
Wagenaur, XIII, 407; De Witt: Letters, IV, 677. 



The*' Dutch "Rebellion, 1673 

Dutch,'' but their real purpose was to disavow Mayhew's 
authority and either set up an independent colony or to ob- 
tain autonomy under a protectorate of Massachusetts. 

Matthew Mayhew, who should be a good witness of these 
events, stated that "about half the People in a Mutinous Man- 
ner rose, with many contumelious Words and Threats against 
the said Govournour daring him in the Prosecution of his 
Royall Highness his Govournment." ^ If Mayhew was willing 
to admit that "about half the People" turned rebels to his 
grandfather's rule, it will be safe to accept it as an under- 
estimate of the number.^ The whole purpose of the governor, 
both before and after this event, was in pursuance of a plan 
of establishing the house of Mayhew as an hereditary aris- 
tocracy on the island, an attitude that almost dominated his 
last official and personal acts even in the shadow of death. 
He had at first conformed to the requirements of his patent 
and allowed men to be "chosen" to govern the freeholders, 
but by 1 66 1 he had claimed extraordinary authority against 
the objections of the inhabitants. He failed to give heed to 
the mutterings that arose then, and now at the first oppor- 
tunity, when the opposition was numerically stronger, he felt 
the storm gathering about him and his little official circle, 
and at last it had burst. The freeholders knew it was their 
chance to get rid of hereditary rulers and lords of the manor, 
of which they supposed their New England to be quit. 

THE REBELS DEMAND MAYHEW'S ABDICATION. 

Accordingly, twenty of the leading inhabitants, probably 
under the guidance of Thomas Burchard, decided to secure 
by peaceful means if possible, a change in the existing form 
of government and an adhesion to the Massachusetts system 
of elections of officers as provided in the original sale of the 
island by Forret, thirty-tw^o years before. Desiring to spare 
the aged governor any unnecessary personal humiliation, they 
addressed the following letter to him which was carried by a 
committee representing them : — 

'N. Y. Col. Mss. XXIV. 1 6. The rebellion on the Vineyard was duplicated at 
Nantucket at the same time, and for the same causes — family government, though 
the reasons for it were not so acute on that island, and hence not so personally irri- 
tating. 

^In 1675 Simon Atheam stated there were 38 white men on the island able to 
bear arms. In two lists the author accoimts for that exact number. 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

Worthy Sir. 

After our Salutations &c our mind and purpose is to put our-selvs & 
both towns under boston gouvernment for protection and Appeelle. And 
boston Laws to be our Laws and to make our terms for rates as easy as we 
can only firste our desire is of you that you w^ould be pleased to laye aside 
your Comission Government And Act And doe with us soe we shall chuse 
your selfe to be in place this year with sum Assistiants And Afterward, as 
the yearly choyce shall fall And thuse we think to continue untill his majestie 
or the Duck if the resignat of the lord starling shall order atherwise. ^ 

This was signed by Thomas Burchard, Isaac Robinson, 
Thomas Bayes, Nicholas Norton, James Skiffe, John Pease, 
John Butler, Thomas Butler, John Arey, Thomas Jones, 
Isaac Norton, Joseph Norton, Henry Luce, Samuel Russell, 
James Redfield, Philip Smith, Charles Crossthout, Stephen 
Codman, Thomas Trapp, and Simon Athearn. 

Representing as he did the idea of absolutism which was 
the fundamental principle of the duke of York's political 
system, the aged governor, wedded to his power, gave them a 
curt reply: "No, he would not — he could not Answer it." 
Further than that, he "gave them to understand his Resolu- 
tion to hould and defend the Place until it should be forceably 
taken out of his hands." The more radical ones desired that 
decisive action be instituted, and "some more Principalis 
putting the Matter forward, about half the People in a Mutin- 
ous Manner arose, with many contumelious Words and 
Threats against the said Govournour daring him in the Prose- 
cution of his Royall Highness his Government." But as in 
all such times the hot-heads exceed their authority and often 
compromise the work of the conservative element. The 
leaders desired only a quiet and firm campaign in the interests 
of all concerned. They had gone to the governor with a 
proposition to restore the forms of government granted to 
him and them by Lord Stirling's patent, and they only wished 
him to abide by it. If not, he must accept the consequences. 

THEY APPEAL TO MASSACHUSETTS. 

This peaceful tender having been made and refused, 
the revolutionary party now took the next step and prepared 
a statement of their case to the governor and council of the 
Massachusetts Bay, formally tendering the island to them as 
a part of their government. The die was now cast and the 
lives and property of the signers put in peril. If they succeeded 
they would become patriots ; if they, failed, rebels and traitors. 

'Mass. Arch. CVI. 202. 



The*' Dutch "Rebellion, 1673 

The statement and petition is as follows : — 

The most humble pettision of his majesties subjects the freehoulders 
in the two towns setled on Marthas Vineyard: — 

Unto the Right worshippfuU John Leaverit Esq Governnour of the 
Jurisdiction of boston with the worshipful the magistrates his Assistants 
in the said Government: — 

Right Worshipfull. 

The many greevances which Leieth as a burden on our Spirits And the 
Consideration, of the waight of Duty that leieth on us doth Constrain us 
to be your most humble pettitioners who besecheth you for the Lords Sacke 
to Lend ane Eare unto our most humble pettition And protest as both from 
Domistic And forrain enemise And also to redresse what things Are Amisse 
And strengthen those that are redy to die. 

to relat things at Large may be too tedious but our Greevences are redy 
to be mad App't when Ocation may serve but to cut short now the day of 
our choyce being past And no Choyce is made so that now here is none to 
bare rull nether have we any law but every one Doth that which is right 
in his own eyes. Now Mr Mayhews first purchase of this Hand was from 
the Agent of the Lord Starling in which graunt Mr Mayhew was oblidged 
to set up the Government of the Massachusetts which was then established 
And sence that Government hath bene laied by things have grown from 
better to worse untell we are Com to nothing as at this daye now for the 
Lords sacke graunt us your powerfuU hand to protect us whilst there is 
probation time, besidse wee humbly besech your honours to considre the 
safe preservation of the shipingand trade of the Countrie by the preservation 
of the Hand and harbour now are the two tribs And halfe did take care for 
the preservation of theire posteritie so we besech you so to Commiserate 
our condition that if possible we may be yet recovered And made Able to 
stand A littell members of Gods Covenanting people in this wildernesse wee 
are the majer part of the freehouldes on the iland who doe thuse pettision 
unto yowe And his majesties Court the most noble in these parts of Amarika 
the other which doe not petition are many of them much desirous this 
thing would be Accomplished but only Mr Mr Mayhews families That doe 
withstand our pettisioning But we humbly conceive your honourable Court 
may receive us without Dainger And protect us in marcy for how can it 
stand in Law that Loveliss being Governour but for a time can have power 
to give a Commission unto Mr Mayhew for his life to govern without an 
oath as hath bene publiquly owned by Mr May: himselfe being [asked]. 
And thuse he doth hold him selfe to command to bare rull ouver ous. 

Now that your honours may know we have not don this rashly we have 
here also sent a copy of what tender we made to Mr Mayhew : ^ 

but his answar was unto the men sent from us no he would not he could 
not Answar it 

Now for this we are thretened to lose our lands and be made tratch- 
erous: Let the wisdom of god guyd both you and us And we besech you 
to Commiserat our condition and graunt us an Answare soe we shall remain 

^Printed on page 156. 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

your most humble and obediant subjects to be guyded And protected under 
our Dred soveren Lord the King of England: Scotlan, franc and lyerland 

Yours to Comand by the subscribing 
of our hands 
writen from Marthas Vineyard 
this 15th October 1673. 

Tho: Birchard Isaack Norton 

Isaack Robinson Joseph Norton 

Thomas Bayes Henery Luce 

Nicholas Norton Samuell Russell 

James SkiiJe James Redfield 

John Pease Phillip Smith 

John Butler Charles Crossthout 

Thomas Butler Stephen Codman 

John Ary Thomas Trappe 

Thomas Joanse Simon Athearn 

The same persons signed it, twenty in all, and their claim 
that they were "the majer part of the freehoulders on this 
island who do thuse pettision" seems to be borne out by an 
enumeration of those males known to be living on the island 
at that time. "The other which doe not pettition," they 
assert, "are many of them much desirous this thing would be 
Accomplished but only Mr Mayhews families that doe with- 
stand our pettisioning." It appears that the following named 
persons did not sign: James Allen, James Covell, Isaac Chase, 
Thomas Daggett, Joseph Daggett, John Eddy, Thomas Har- 
lock, Joseph Merry, Matthew Mayhew, Rev. John Mayheiv, 
Thomas Mayhew jd, James Pease, Jacob Perkins, Richard 
Sarson, William Vincent, Philip Watson, Thomas West, 
William Weeks, Jeremiah Whitten. Of the nineteen persons 
enumerated, those whose names are in italics, nine in all, 
were either Mayhews by blood or connected with them by 
marriage. Vincent, though not a signer, was fined later for 
his opposition. There may have been a few other tenants or 
freeholders then resident in the Vineyard, not enumerated 
above, but it cannot affect the point prominently put forward 
that, barring Mr. Mayhew, his son, sons-in-law, and those 
within their sphere of family influence, the majority were in 
favor of a change, and were willing to risk life and estate to 
free themselves from this personal government. This docu- 
ment may be termed the Vineyard's Declaration of Indepen- 
dence against arbitrary authority and irresponsible rulers. 

'Mass. Arch. CVI, 202. 

158 . 



The*' Dutch'* Rebellion, 1673 

MASSACHUSETTS DECLINES TO INTERFERE. 

But the Massachusetts Bay officials were in no mood to 
accept the offer so flatteringly made. They had but just 
emerged from one long struggle of twenty years duration in 
absorbing territory that did not belong to them, and their 
experience with the Province of Maine, being finally forced 
to buy what they had attempted to usurp, made them wary 
of going oustide their patent to engage in a dispute with the 
King's brother over territorial jurisdiction. Consequently, 
there was no hesitation in promptly declining to engage in 
the quarrel, and the following answer was returned : — 

25:8: To Mr Thomas Bercher, Mr Isaac Robenson and the rest of the 

1673. subscribers of a petition sent from Martens Vinyard unto the 

honoured Govemour and Assistants of the Massachusetts.^ 

Gent men yr of the 15 present we rec'd by witch we understand that there 
is a difference betwixt your selves and your ancient and long continued 
Govemour the whitch is very grievous to us, but how to help we kno not 
for at such a time as this is to set in with a divided people we se not 
sufficient reson nor to take upon us the Governm't of any people upon 
the request of a part of them, and where as you say your day for choyse is 
past it holds forth you had a day apoynted for election but why you pro- 
ceeded not in that work we understand not and if it were hinderd by your 
selves you may seriously considder whether the grete and many difficul- 
tyes you are under may not now be best eased by your quiet yealding 
unto your former Government and your own holdsum lawes you have 
lived so long under, Until you understand his Majestys pleasure whether 
to establish your one Governmt or to settell you under some other Coll- 
enyes in these parts, but to shew ourselves siding in a divission amongst 
our friends and Country men we are all together Indisposed unto, but 
earnestly desire your comfortable closing to geather, as in your best da yes. 
Not else but the respects to you all remain your very lo: freinds, 

The Court of Assistants 
As Attest: EDWARD RAWSON, Secretary. 
Passed by the Court of Assistants 31 October 1673 

AN INDEPENDENT GOVERNMENT STARTED. 

But this damper on their hopes did not deter them from 
their purpose, and the only effect it had was to precipitate 
''home rule" under the leaders of the rebellion. This was 
the course pursued. "They proceeded," so Mayhew stated, 
"to erect a Govourment in opposition to his Royal Highness' 
Govourment," but what form it took is not known, there 
being no records extant of its acts or for how long a period 

'Mass. Arch. XLVIII, 138. 



History of Martha's Vineyard - 

it endured. The Mayhew regime, of course, retained the 
possession of the records, land, probate and court, and this 
was a valuable asset, involving titles to property, settlement 
of estates, and other important books of reference. Doubtless 
this was used by the official party to its fullest extent, and it 
is probable that the recording of deeds and like matters was 
refused to the '^rebels."* 

But two governments existed on the island for at least 
a year, the "regulars," composed of the Mayhews and re- 
tainers, and the "rump," consisting of the rebels and their 
friends. Doubtless Simon Athearn was the leading spirit in 
Tisbury as Thomas Burchard was in Edgar town, for there 
were no rebels in Chilmark, the peculiar domain of the May- 
hews. Seven of the signers were of the newly incorporated 
town of Tisbury. Probably it will never be known how this 
"rump" government was conducted or who were its officials. 
Confusion and bitterness prevailed as a matter of course, and 
it was truly a civil war, but without any casualties. "The 
longest sword must bear Rule," they said to the governor, 
and then they proceeded to tear down warrants posted by his 
authority, abuse the constables sent to serve his writs, and 
always "disdaining so much as any intimation of Right title 
of interest from his Royall Highness." As an instance of 
how high the feeling ran it is recorded that Mary, wife of 
John Pease, was indicted for "forcibly taking a warrant out 
of the marshalls hands" when they came to arrest her hus- 
band for "committing a riot."^ The riot, of course, was his 
refusal to acknowledge the "regular" government, as he was 
one of the rebels who signed the petition to Boston, and the 
arrest was made five days after it was dated. ^ It was May- 
hew' s first move against the enemy, and Pease was "Both 
person and estate Bound to answer at the next sessions of 
Triall." It was indeed to be a case where "the longest 
sword" would win the victory. The opposition was irritated 
by this and Matthew Mayhew stated that they threatened the 
governor, "challenging the family of him," shook fists at his 
retainers and generally conducted themselves as if they felt 

*In 1676, Simon Athearn, one of the signers, petitioned the Governor of New 
York to have the record of his lands and deeds placed in "the ofic of records at New- 
yorke." (N. Y. Col. Mss. XXIV. 104.) 

^Dukes Deeds, I. 403. 

^It is hardly to be supposed that John Pease, who was then an aged man, would 
create much of a riot in the accepted sense of the word. He had always lived a life 
noticeably free from contention, and rarely engaged in litigation. 

160 



The "Dutch" Rebellion, 1673 

there would be no day of reckoning, and there would not 
have been if the Dutch had held New York. Having been 
jilted by Massachusetts, the leaders were without resource, 
except Rhode Island, and it is not known that they sought 
political connections there. In their extremity in the spring 
of 1674, they turned to Matthias Nicolls, late secretary of the 
colony of New York and in exile in New England during the 
Dutch occupancy of that city, and sought his advice in the 
premises. As they did not know how he stood affected to- 
wards them the precaution was taken to send the letter and 
papers anonymously. This curious communication to him 
was as follows : — 

Worthy Sir we Intreat you to Except and piruse our Rude and Un- 
comly Loins yet trew: forour Oppertunity will not Admite of a New draught 
as our Intent was: our desires is allso that you may be pleased to bestow a 
few loins upon us in way of Counsall and advise and if you desire it we will 
keep your Advise a(s) seacret: sir if you see it your way to Answer our 
Request you may be pleased to direct your Letters unto James Readfiel(d) 
now Resadent in Newhaven who we doubt not will be CarefuU of them and 
faithful to us in sending them. 

Inhabitants of Mar(tins) Vineyard 
[May 5, 1674] 
To the Worshipfull 

Capt. Mathias Nicols now Resadent in New England.^ 

What reply, if any, Nicolls made to them is not known 
as it could not become a matter of record under the circum- 
stances. In this way things progressed for months with no 
result except increased bitterness between the factions. 
Matthew Mayhew testified that the rebels "managed their 
possessions with such, a high hand as to live according to their 
Profession, by the Sword." '^ and that there was nothing more 
serious than wordy battles is due, so the same authority tells 
us, to the restraint placed on the official party by the governor. 
They were barely dissuaded by him "from using of the Sword 
in their Defence." Meanwhile the governor was quietly put- 
ting the screws on individuals where he could, fining them 
so heavily that it amounted to a sequestration of their prop- 

^This letter, endorsed "About Mr May(hew) & his Patent" is in N. Y. Col 
Mss. XXIV, 75, and was probably a letter of transmittal covering copies of docu- 
ments relating to the subject. From internal and collateral evidence it is believed, 
that the document now filed in same collection of State Archives, ipeeds, I, 72, con- 
sisting of copies of the town grants of Great Harbor, and signed by eleven of the 
signers of the petition of Oct. 15, 1673, is the one sent by the "Inhabitants" to Nicolls. 
(See Appendix.) 

^N. Y. Col. Mss. XXIV, 16. 

161 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

erty. No doubt Mayhew acted in this particular from an 
honest, but exaggerated point of view as to his dignity, and 
he probably considered them all as traitors to the duke whom 
he represented. He had threatened to disfranchise them 
and deprive them of their lands, and he was doing it by a 
sure and slow process. 

SIMILAR CONDITION AT NANTUCKET. 

It is interesting to note that while these things were going 
on at the Vineyard, similar scenes were being enacted at 
Nantucket. It was the same story almost repeated with 
different performers on the stage — the people and the new- 
comers against the office holders and the ruling classes. Al- 
together, Governor Mayhew had his hands full. He wrote 
that when they, the outsiders and new-comers heard the news 
that "Yorke was taken by the Dutch" they entered into a 
rebellion against the authorities and said: "Noe Man had a 
Right to a Foot of Land before the Date of the last Charter, 
and they by the Book endeavour to dethrone our Libertys — 
announcing my Right obtained from the Earle of Sterlinge 
nothing, also the Indian Right nothing, my quiett occupation 
there of 29 yeares nothing, the Grounding of the ten Partners 
upon my first Graunt nothing." This "war" lasted longer 
than the Vineyard rebellion and in some ways the ringleaders 
on Nantucket were more resourceful. Matthew Mayhew 
admitted this in a quaint manner in an address to Governor 
Andros, when he said of the rebels: "Every Card they play 
is an Ace and every Ace a Trump." 

Greater events were taking place in international politics 
which lent favor to Mayhew's cause. Had the Dutch con- 
tinued in possession of New York, it is probable that the rebels 
on the Vineyard would have won out by force of numbers, 
but rulers of larger destinies were making different calcula- 
tions which upset the plans of the little band of freeholders 
struggling for liberty of the ballot on the Vineyard. The 
differences which had existed between the English and the 
Dutch came into the hands of the diplomats for settlement 
at Westminster in February, 1674, and by the terms of the 
treaty executed at that place in that month Nieuw Amsterdam 
was to be surrendered to the English, and on October 31 of 
that year it became New York once more. On that date 
Governor Sir Edmond Andros resumed authority of the 

162 



The** Dutch'* Rebellion, 1673 

province in behalf of the Duke, and the Dutch foundation of 
our httle rebel government wsiS thus ruthlessly undermined 
by powers beyond its reach. He had undoubtedly been in- 
formed of the situation on the Vineyard, probably by the 
"loyal" element on Nantucket, and proceeded to deal vig- 
orously with the subject. 




GREAT SEAL OF THE DUKE OF YORK. 

use;d on the; vineyard charters 

1671 



163 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Restoration of Mayhew's Authority, 1674-1682. 

To remove any doubt of the validity of the duke's title, 
either for want of "seizin" to the crown, or on account of the 
conquest of the Dutch after the Treaty of Westminster, Charles 
the Second confirmed to his brother the duke, in language 
almost identical with the patent of 1665, the grant he made 
on that date/ Under this renewal the duke proceeded to 
re-establish his provincial government. This re-grant, dated 
June 29, 1674, was made the occasion for a similar confirma- 
tion of the pre-existing conditions at the Vineyard. Under 
date of November 7 following, the new governor by and 
with the advice and consent of his council, issued the following 
order, "for the Settling of Affaires there (Martha's Vineyard) 
and preventing of future Contests that may arise amongst 
them," as intimated by some of the inhabitants: — 

1. Imprimis: That the Government and Magistracy in the Island 
Martins Vineyard shall bee sett and Confirmed in the same manner and in 
the same Psons that were Legally invested therein, at the Time of the Dutch 
coming into these Parts, in July 1673, or have since been legally Elected, 
by vertue of his Royall Highnesses Authority. 

2. That by Reason of the first Right Mr. Thomas Mayhew Sr. hath 
had to the Island Martins Vineyard It is Ordered during his Time, that hee 
shall Preside at the Gen'll Courts which are to be held in like Manner as was 
established by Governor Lovelace, the Orders whereof as well as the Time 
of Election of their Magistrates and other Ofiicers are to be observed as 
then prescribed.^ 

Further clauses decreed that all laws should be in force, 
as formerly approved, and all rights, privileges, and property 
grants heretofore in existence should stand until further order. 
In short, the meaning of this was to restore the status quo 
ante, to all intents and purposes. Under it the "rebels" could 
find little comfort. 

GOV. SIR EDMUND ANDROS DEALS WITH THE REBELS. 

It had in all probability been represented to him that 
the rebels were not only favoring the Dutch rule, but were 

^N. Y. Regents' Report, I, 21, 22. 

^N. Y. Col. Mss., Orders, Passes, etc., Ill, 19. 

164 



Restoration of Mayhew's Authority 

enemies of the duke, and the new royal governor lost no time 
in issuing a special order to provide for the punishment of 
these traitors, in the following terms: — 

Whereas I have been given to understand that severall Disorders 
have hapned in the Islands Martins Vineyard and Nantuckett (or one of 
them) since the Time of the Dutch coming into these Parts in July 1673: 
I have with the Advice of my Councell thought fit to order and appoint that 
the Governour or Governours and Assistants of both the Islands aforesaid 
bee hereby Authorized and Empowered to call to Account and Punish ac- 
cording to Law, all such offenders and Transgressors against the established 
Government under his Royall Highnesse, the Crime not extending to Life 
Limbe or Banishment: But in Cases of such High Crime which may 
Deserve those Punishments to secure the offenders and send them hither 
by first convenience.' 

Mayhew was a little slow in his movements as usual, 
and some time elapsed before he decided to take advantage 
of this turn of events, but he soon despatched Matthew Mayhew 
and Thomas Daggett to New York to lay his complaints 
before the restored ducal government and to pay his and their 
humble respects in a loyal address. They reached Fort James 
about a week after Andros had issued his orders of confirma- 
tion and special warrant, and presented a joint statement of 
the late troubles on this island. In the address to Andros 
they referred to "his Majesties good subjects" of Martha's 
Vineyard, who had been awaiting the restoration of authority 
under his rule and "for whose arrivall they have patiently 
weighted, as in Time of great Drouth for the latter Rain."^ 
Andros was an absolutist and did not fail them. He was a 
supporter of the classes against the masses. 

With the return of the grandson and son-in-law bringing 
this order the governor was fortified in his desire to punish 
the "tratcherous." It may be thought that in this the aged 
governor, then eighty-one, was under the influence of his 
grandson, about twenty-five years of age and then at a period 
in life likely to develop hot-headedness, or of his son-in-law 
Daggett, but no one who has studied the governor's character 
can fail to accord him the actual credit for all that he did, 
or had done in his name, down to the hour when he drew his 
last breath. He was a m.an who ruled his family as he ruled 
others, without brooking disobedience, and that he could and 
did get into violent passions is related by Captain John Gard- 



'Warrants, Orders, Passes, Vol. Ill, 21. Dated Nov. 7, 1674. 
^N. Y. Col. Mss. XXIV, 16. 



165 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

ner of Nantucket, concerning an incident which occurred 
three years later when Mayhew was eighty-five. "Hee came 
to my Loging,'' said Gardner, "in as great Pashon as I Judge 
a Man could well be, accusing me highly wherein I was wholy 
inosent. . . . Mr Mayhew tacking this opertunity to vente 
him selvef as followeth: telling mee I had bin to Yourke but 
should lose my Labor: that if the Governor did unwind he 
would wind: and that he would make my Fine and Disfran- 
chisement abid on mee dou the Governour what he would: 
that he had nothing against me, neither was angry, but I had 
spocken against his Interest and I should downe."^ 

GOV. MAYHEW INSTITUTES REPRISALS. 

This is quoted at length to explain the events which fol- 
lowed the return of the messengers to New York and the men- 
tal attitude of the man who was thus empowered to use his 
family and relatives to punish those who had opposed him. 
They had "spoken against his Interest" and they "should 
downe." Doubtless the rebels were fully aware that he would 
break if he could not bend them and many had felt his wrath 
in the past. John Pease, foreseeing the coming of the storm, 
made his will on March 4, 1674, and was thus prepared for 
the next world and what might happen in this. The records 
unfortunately do not give us full insight into the entire pro- 
ceeding, but Mayhew early selected William Vincent for 
his share and not only heavily fined but probably disfran- 
chised him. Simon Athearn was taken next and it was ordered 
that he be sent to New York under the terms of the order of 
Governor Andros as it was held that he was guilty of "High 
Crime." This was enough to take the fight out of most any- 
body in those days and the opposition now was on the losing 
side. Many doubtless came out and publicly admitted their 
guilt and were held on bail or under bonds. Otherwise, we 
cannot account for the few who were punished as appears 
of record. In different ways the opponents were made to 
feel "the halter draw" and without "good opinion of the 
law" as administered by the family bench. Thomas Daggett 
got after one of the signers, James Skiff, on a charge of de- 
famation and sued him therefor at a court held Dec. 29, 1674, 
and the jury brought in an alternative verdict for damages 
or an apology. Skiff to save his heavy fine acknowledged 

* Warrants, Orders, Passes, Vol. III. Dated i6 March, 1677-8. 
166 



Restoration of Mayhew's Authority 

that he had "smned both agamst god and Thomas Daggett"^ 
by the use of ''sundry slanderous and opprobrious words as 
calhng him theif Her and cheating knave." But the verdict 
was not satisfactory to Daggett and his wife Hannah, the 
''deputy governor," berated one of the jurymen for depriving 
her husband of the money part of the verdict. "If an in- 
differant purson" said one juror, "and not a relation had 
writt the testimony or that if Skiffe had swept all his testi- 
mony away, and pleaded to your husbands own confeshon, 
Skiffe had proved his charg."" There can be no doubt that 
the partisan character of the duke's bench was notoriously 
to the great detriment of justice between the freeholders and 
members of the ruling family. 

The punishments went merrily on. Nicholas Norton 
was tried, convicted and fined ;^5i, but upon making two 
humble apologies for his part in the troubles and promising 
that "he shall be more. careful for the future" his fine was 
commuted. James Redfield was next in order, and was 
similarly convicted and mulcted, but in consideration of his 
poverty, the fine was remitted. It is believed he agreed to 
depart from the Vineyard and so leniency was accorded him. 

He left within a short time, took up his residence in 
New Haven, Conn., and never returned. There is no record 
of a sale of his house lot in Tisbury, and possibly it was se- 
questrated. Charles Crossthwaite was another who was 
probably forced off, as he also ceased to be a resident within 
a year, removing to Boston. Stephen Codman made his 
escape to Roxbury, and left his large estate of three-and-a- 
half house lots on Starbuck's Neck uncared for a number of 
years, until the storm blew over. Death removed John Arey 
from the scene early, but his estate was encumbered for years 
after with a mortgage, perhaps raised to pay the fine imposed 
for his "treason." Samuel Russell left his new home in Tis- 
bury, bought by his father, and returned to Scituate where 
he afterwards lived, until his death in 1677 at the hands 
of Indians. These five men are the only ones known to 

^Dukes Co. Court Records, Vol. I. The association of the name of Deity and 
the plaintiff in Skiff's apology doubtless arose from the fact that he considered now 
the Mayhews with their family connections were omnipotent. 

^N. Y. Col. Mss. XXIV, 159. The juror in question, Jacob Perkins, later had 
a case of his own against an Indian for assault with a knife, and it was Daggett's turn 
as judge to get even. He threatened to fine Perkins for "calling the Indian a Lying 
Roag," and let the Indian go free. "Mr Mayhew said if you do not like what I doe, 
you may go to York." Perkins left the Vineyard. 

167 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

have left the Vineyard immediately as a result of the civil 
war. The others remained and made their peace in some 
way not shown in the court records, but as these records are 
undoubtedly incomplete, these omissions are not to be con- 
sidered as evidence that nothing was done to the other eleven 
not enumerated. This omission in the case of Thomas 
Burchard, who v/as the first signer and who was named by 
Athearn as a ''principall instigator" of the rebellion, is all 
the more pointed as it is not to be inferred that he escaped 
without a scratch. The man who received the full force of 
the wrath of the Mayhews and their retainers was Simon 
Athearn, and for the remaining years of their lives it was a 
vendetta that knew no surcease between him and Matthew 
Mayhew. At first, Simon Athearn tried to make his peace 
with the rehabilitated government, and petitioned to have a 
mitigation of his sentence. The court on Jan. 8, 1675, fined 
him twenty pounds, one-half to be paid "forthwith," and for 
speaking against the decree of the court in William Vincent's 
case, ten pounds was levied, one-half of which was to be 
paid "forthwith" in the same manner, part cash, part stock. 
His disfranchisement was continued during the pleasure of 
the court, which considered him "one of the Ringleaders in 
the late Resisting of the Govourment."^ The punishments, 
disfranchisements, and sequestrations of estates became known 
to the people elsewhere, through the friends of the victims, 
and caused widespread comment. The Rev. Increase Mather 
of Boston makes the following note on the subject in his 
diary : — 

At Martins Vineyard divers honest people are in great trouble: their 

estates sequestered by reason of Mr. M complaining to the Gov'r 

of N. Y. 2 

These men were simply being punished for seeking 
political freedom, and naturally had the sympathy of those 
in other colonies where the ballot was the poor man's weapon 
against oppression and arbitrary rulers. The "rebels" were 
therefore dissatisfied at the results of events which threw them 
back into the old government of grandfather, grandson, son- 
in-law, and brother-in-law, and they looked forward to re- 
prisals from a bench composed of men so related. "I veryly 
believe had Genneral Lovelesse Given and Confined Mr 

'Dukes Coimty Court Records, I. 

^Mass. Hist. Soc. Proceedings, XIII, (2d series). 

168 



Restoration of Mayhew's Authority 

Mayhew and us unto the Laws of this province," wrote 
Athearn to Andros, "it had prevented all disorder which hath 
fallen out senc: but when good government faills the duty 
and honor of a stat faills: for such and many other causes 
as are well known we are Kept very few in number, and pore 
in estats, and Left to a great annamossitie of spirit which 
must needs be the concomatants of such erregular proceed- 
ings."^ This was the crux of the whole situation, an attempt 
to engraft a medieval manorial system on a people who had 
left such things behind, or supposed they had, when they 
crossed the ocean to build up a new political system of demo- 
cratic government, where hereditary privileges should have 
no place. 

QUIET FINALLY RESTORED. 

Peace was thus restored to the Vineyard, but not satis- 
faction, except to Mayhew and his followers. "I did & doe 
still rest satisfied therein to the full," wrote Mayhew to Andros, 
in the month of April, 1675, "it being absolutely just in my 
under(standing) & (others?) have scene it that are very 
judicious," referring to the action which Andros took to restore 
him to power.- On the other side of the picture we have the 
sentiment of the defeated faction expressed in the language 
of Simon Athearn, later in the same year. "I shall not men- 
tion the many greevienses which are," he wrote to Andros, 
"But this I know that if things be -not mended divers of the 
inhabitants will remove their dwellings to goe whare they 
Can: wherefor I besech your honnor to graunt us your Law 
to be our rule and square to walke by, that we may be de- 
livered from all rible rable and notions of men."^ 

The old magistrates were again in the saddle, and matters 
ran along in the old ways for several years. In 1675, the 
bench consisted of the governor, Richard Sarson, Matthew 
Mayhew, and Thomas^ Mayhew, the outside member, James 
Allen, having been dropped. Probably this quartette con- 
tinued in office, with INIatthew Mayhew^ Clerk of the General 
Court for the next five years, but the records do not show the 

^N. Y. Col. Mss. XXIV, 159. In this letter Athearn complains that their laws 
were a mixture "of boston & plimmouth Law books," and if this did not cover a 
particular case the English practice should prevail, and he adds "the Law of England 
non of us know." 

^Ibid., XXIV, 92. 

^Ibid,, XXIV, 159. 

169 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

fact, and Mayhew had failed to make the annual reports of 
the elections. "I verily believe," wrote Athearn to Andros, 
"did your honnor know the broke Confusednesse of the re- 
cords on martins vineyard your honnor would see it nesses- 
serery to take a better title. "^ This neglect on the part of 
Mayhew was noticed by the provincial authorities, and at a 
council held on June 2^, 1680, it was ordered that a messenger 
go to the Vineyard to see "that fitt Magistrates be elected & 
confirmed there & that they be required to send one of their 
former number thither to answer their neglect in not making 
due returnes of their Elections the last Yeare."' Whether 
this omission was intentional or not, can hardly be said, but 
on Sept. 2 the governor sent an explanation to Andros, which 
evidently was not satisfactory, and it was ordered "that 
mr. Thomas Mayhew doe forthwith send mr. Matthew 
Mahew & mr. Sarsen sufficiently Authorized to give an 
accompt & receive orders & Direcons therein."^ What the 
result of this summons was does not appear, though nothing 
was done to loosen the control of the dominant element on 
the island. Thus matters remained until the spring of 1682, 
when, at the great age of eighty-nine years, the old governor 
passed out of the world to the "great beyond" on March 25th, 
and thus brought to an end the governorship, dependent upon 
his "life," which had caused so much dissension and em- 
bittered his latter days. As we review it now, it seems to 
have been an unjustifiable position, utterly at variance with 
the spirit of the age and the customs of the neighboring 
jurisdictions. His tenacity in clinging to the office, and forc- 
ing a "family bench" on the people, which could not but 
have been a partisan agency in the administration of the law 
and justice, seems to have been based upon anything but 
worthy and high motives. It leaves an undeniable blot upon 
a career of distinctive and unselfish labor in other spheres 
of usefullness. The wonder is, that he could not see the 
impropriety of his sons-in-law and grandchildren adjudicating 
cases where his family had such extensive interests, and had 
there been any effective supervision of the Vineyard from 

'N. Y. Col. Mss., XXIV, 159. This is literally true. The land records contain 
Court proceedings, probate transactions, and general minutes of the General Court, 
while the Court records contain both probate records, land records, and private memo- 
randa, besides the regular judicial minutes. 

^Ibid. Vol. XXIX. 

^Ibid., XXIX, 212. 

170 



Restoration of Mayhew's Authority 

New York, it is safe to say that such a condition would not 
have lasted as long as it did. It was maintained by him 
with success by reason of this condition, and his studious 
failure to keep in touch with his superiors, through regular 
reports of his stewardship. 




SEAI, USED BY GOVERNOR MAYHEW. 

FROM THE CONNECTICUT ARCHIVES. 



171 



History of Martha's Vineyard 



CHAPTER XV. 

The Ad^hnistration of Maj. Matthew Mayhew, 
1682-1692. 

As an illustration of the policy of delay and avoidance, 
which had marked the designs of those who controlled the 
political interests of the Vineyard, by which the suzerain 
authority at New York was kept in ignorance of the situation 
of affairs on the island, may be cited the long neglect of the 
ofEcials to notify the royal governor of the death of the old 
governor. He had died on March 25, 1682, as before stated, 
but it was not till August 16 that the information reached 
Fort James for action. The notification had been written 
on June 11, over two months after his death, and was not 
forwarded for two more months, when it would seem that so 
important a matter should be given the earliest despatch to 
provide for the filling of the vacancy. The delay may have 
been for the purpose of securing a certain continuance of the 
existing regime. That is what resulted, as will be seen by 
the following appointment : — 

New Yorke August the 28th 1682 
Gentlemen : 

Yours of the nth of June Received the i6th Instant and herewith 
Inclosed send you a Renewed commission for the Peace in your Parts and 
therein thought fitt to appoint Mr. Matthew Mayhew in the stead of that 
worthy Person Mr. Thomas Mayhew his father Late Deceased to be cheife 
supplying the Defect with another of the same Name, and as I have ap- 
proved of your fitnesse and Ability soe will not doubt yor Integrityes in the 
faithfuU Discharge of your offices & Trust in you Reposed accordingly the 
oath appointed for the oflace of a Justice of the peace the Rest in Commission 

are to administer to Mr. Thomas Mayhew According to Law 

In the meantime I wish you all peace and happinesse and Remain, Gentle- 
men, 

Your affectionate friend 

ANTHONY BROCKHOLLS.* 

It is to be noted that there was no appointment of a 
governor, with a limited tenure even, and the executive func- 
tions were vested in Matthew Mayhew as "Chief Magistrate" 
of the General Court. Perhaps this was a concession to the 
opposition, but we have no knowledge that any attempt was 

IN. Y. Col. Mss., XIV, 769. 
172 



Administration of Maj. Matthew Mayhew 

made by them to influence matters, at this important juncture. 
The appointment meant that the old influences were still 
paramount, and that with the "life" feature subtracted the 
bench was in the same hands. The government of the Vine- 
yard was in reality vested in the judiciary, but progress was 
being made in the enfranchisement of the people, and the 
participation of the freemen in the affairs of the province was 
effected this year. Constitutional rights were granted by the 
king, the province was organized more extensively by the 
creation of counties, and local self-government was developed 
in many new channels. A legislature was provided for and 
the close corporation, known as the governor and council, was 
to have a check in a body chosen by the freemen of the char- 
tered towns. 

Preparations were made for the first sitting of the first 
assembly, to be holden under the new Charter of Liberties, 
and the council called an election for representatives to meet 
in general assembly at the capital city on Manhattan Island. 
The following notice was sent to the voters of the Vineyard : — 

Ordered, that Matthew Mayhew be Sherifif of Martins Vineyard, 
Nantucket, EHzabeth Island & all other Islands from the Eastward of 
Long Island to Nantucket Shoals, belonging to his Royal Highness James 
Duke of York & that he appoint the freeholders of said plantation to meet 
and chuse one out of each Island to meet in the most convenient place to 
chose one Representative for themselves in the General Assembly to be 
holden at the City of New York October 17th 1683.^ 

It is stated that both islands sent one deleg^ate, but their 
names are lost in the missing journals of that session." Thus 
for the first time the freemen of the Vineyard, after a period 
of forty years were permitted to take part in the deliberations 
of a legislature which had jurisdiction over their affairs, and 
the irresponsible personal government seemed about to have 
reached its end. 

A new royal governor came over in 1683 in the person of 
Thomas Dongan, of whom some particulars will be of interest, 
for his connection with the Vineyard soon became of special 
importance and continued for many years. He was an Irish- 
man, of the nobility resident in the Emerald Isle, and was 
born in 1634, at Castletown in the county of Kildare. He 
entered military life, serving with the English and French 

'N. Y. Col. Doc, XIV, 771. 
'Journals, Legislative Council, I, xi. 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

troops in turn, as opportunity offered, and attained the rank 
of colonel. Later he was appointed Lieutenant Governor of 
Tangiers by Charles the Second. After his return to England, 
he was created Earl of Limerick, and died in London, Dec. 

^4, 1715- 

THE MANOR OF MARTIN'S VINEYARD CREATED. 

Mayhew soon ingratiated himself in the favor of this new 
executive, who, under the recent statute passed by the first 
legislature relative to the county courts, was willing to com- 
mission Matthew Mayhew, Richard Sarson, Thomas Daggett, 
and Thomas Mayhew as the Chief IMagistrate and Associate 
Justices for Dukes County upon his request in June, 1684.^ 
in the fall of that year, new writs were issued for the choosing 
of representatives, and it is presumed that Martha's Vineyard 
was among those places which sent members. It is not known 
who was chosen, but if inferences are to be indulged, we may 
suppose that Matthew Mayhew added this to his multifarious 
functions. Certain it is that he became involved in a strange 
personal "deal" with Governor Dongan, which could not, 
in all probability have been carried out, except by persons 
of close friendship, such as might come through long asso- 
ciation. Perhaps this was brought about during a session 
of the legislature of which he may have been a member. The 
plan comprehended the creation of Martha's Vineyard into 
a manor, with Mayhew as "dummy" and the immediate 
sale of the title of Lord of the Manor to Dongan, who could 
not invest himself with such privileges direct. The plan 
involved some formidable documents to give it a semblance of 
verity, and an abstract of them will show the steps by which 
it was accomplished. 

The instrument creating Matthew Mayhew Lord of the 
Manor of Martha's Vineyard is dated April 25, 1685, and 
begins with a recital of the fact that Matthew Mayhew and 
"his ancestors have been antient setlers, planters, improvers 
and possessors of all that tract called Martins Vineyard," 
and that in response to a request of the said Mayhew for 
a confirmation of the same to him and his heirs, he makes 
such grant of the premises, including the Elizabeth Isles and 
Noman's Land, and then makes the following additional 
bestowal of manorial privileges : — 

'N. Y. Col. Mss., XXXIII, 95. 

174 



Administration of Maj. Matthew Mayhew 

And by virtue of the power and authority in me residing as aforesaid 
I do hereby erect, make, constitute the said Island called Martins Vineyard 
together with the aforementioned Islands called Nomans Land and Eliz- 
abeth Islands, and the above granted premises into one Lordship or Mannor 
of Martins Vinyeard. 

And I do hereby give and grant unto the said Matthew Mayhew his 
heirs and assigns full power and authority att all times hereafter in the said 
Lordship or Manor, one Court-leet, and one Court-baron, to hold and keep 
at such times and soe often yearly as they shall see meet, and all fines, issues 
and amercements, as well att the said Court-leet and Court-baron, as att 
the assizes and Sessions of the Peace, holden or to be holden there or in the 
County called Dukes County, and payable, or happening from time to time 
to be payable, by any of the inhabitants of or within the said Lordship or 
Mannor of Martins Vineyard, and also all and every the powers and author- 
ities hereinbefore mentioned for the holding and keeping the said Court-leet 
and Court-baron, from time to time, and to award and issue out the custom- 
ary writs to be issued and awarded out of the said Court-leet and Court- 
baron, and the sam to bear test and be issued out in the name of the said 
Matthew Mayhew, his heirs and assigns, or their Steward deputed and 
appointed. 

Further clauses enabled the lord of the manor "to dis- 
trayn for all rents," and lest nothing escape the beneficiary, 
*'all waifs, estrayes, wrecks of the sea, Deodands, and goods 
of felons" were to belong to the lord of the manor, together 
with "the advowson and right of patronage of all the Churches 
in the said Manor erected or to be erected." Following: the 
clauses of investiture and warranty come the provisions for 
the quit-rents: "Yealding and paying therefor yearly and 
every year from henceforth unto our Sovereign Lord the 
Kings Majesty, his heirs and assigns or his Resever, Com- 
missionated to or impowered to reseave the same, on the five 
and twentieth day of March yearly the Quit Rent of six bblls 
of good merchantable fish, if demanded, in full of all Rents, 
services and demands whatsoever." This seems like readinsr 
some medieval parchment, rather than the product of the 
new democracy established in America by the dissenters 
from the established social fabric in England. Matthew 
Mayhew was not ignorant of "the world, the flesh and the 
Devil," and he must have smiled when he found himself 
charged with the "advowson and right of patronage of all the 
Churches in the said Manor." However this did not make 
much difference to the first lord, for it was not intended that 
he should set foot upon his manorial demesne, with the title 
belonging to him. With his wife, Mary, whom we can for 
a brief period address as Fady of the Manor, his residence 

175 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

in New York was for a sufficient length of time to turn over 
the title to the one who gave it to him, for a consideration, 
and this took place on May 12 following, making a period 
of seventeen days when he played the part of "First Lord in 
Waiting." 

The indenture "between Matthew Mayhew of the Island 
of Martin's Vineyard, Gent., and Mary his wife, of the one 
part and the Honourable Colonel Thomas Dongan, Lieutenant 
and Governor- General," in consideration of the sum of two 
hundred pounds, dated May 12, 1685, transfers to Dongan 
"all that the Lordship and Manor of Martins Vineyard .... 
and all that Island and tract of land called the Island of 
Martins Vineyard .... and all those several islands or tracts 
of land called the Elizabeth Islands . . . and all the Island 
called No Man's Land .... every of them being parcel of 
the said Lordship and Manor of Martin's Vineyard." 

This indenture excepted the following named tracts from 
the whole: "The land called Nashowakemmuck (boundaries 
given) .... also all that neck called Quanaimes, alias 
Quanissowog (boundaries given) . . . and also one-half of 
the land called Kiphiggon, equally to be divided, viz: the 
western half also one neck of land called Nashawaqueedse 
(boundaries given) . . . and also those two lots of land 
with their a^ppurtenances, in the town called Edgartown: 
the one late the land of the aforesaid Thomas (Mayhew), 
the grand father, and the other the land of the aforesaid 
Thomas (Mayhew), father of the said Matthew Mayhew." 
Exception was also made of the chief rents due to the chief 
lord, and "all estates heretofore made or granted or willed 
by Thomas the grandfather and Thomas the father of the 
said Matthew, and by him the said Matthew or any of them 
to the several townships of Edgartown and Tisbury, or to any 
other planter in the said Manor, or Lordship, or any part 
thereof, or by grants or patents under any the Governors 
of this Province." 

The quit rents were agreed upon as follows: "The yearly 
acknowledgment of four lambs for the land above excepted, 
called Nashowakemmuck: and one lamb for the land called 
Quanaimes, or Quansoowog : and two lambs for the said land 
called one half of Kiphiggon: and two mink skins for the 
said land called Nashawaqueedse: to be paid on the first day 
of May yearly forever." 

176 



Administration of Maj. Matthew Mayhew 

The above indenture was acknowledged by Matthew 
Mayhew on the date of the instrument, and Mary, his wife, 
signed her release on the 27th of July following; both acts 
taking place in New York, "in open court." 

But Matthew Mayhew was not entirely without honors. 
He was still Lord of the Manor of Tisbury, and as a sort of 
compensation for the loss of the greater title, Governor Dongan 
commissioned him as "Clark & Register for Dukes County" 
on the following day, making with his title of chief justice and 
sheriff quite a respectable collection of prefixes to his name.^ 

THE FAMILY NEPOTISM CONTINUED. 

It is difficult to comprehend this piece of official jug- 
glery with the government of the Vineyard. By its terms, 
reduced to their bare residuum, with the legal verbiage elimi- 
nated, Colonel Dongan acquired the title of Lord of the Manor 
of Martin's Vineyard, which Matthew Mayhew had held 
for seventeen days by virtue of Dongan's patent. Together 
with this went the fee of the island, except the chief fee resid- 
ing in the Duke of York and his successors, and excepting 
previously granted tracts "to any other planter in the said 
Manor, or Lordship, or any part thereof," so that the final 
territory which actually came into the possession of Colonel 
Dongan was Gay Head Neck, and possibly a part of 
Noman's Land, out of all the excepted tracts. It is now 
known that the new Lord of Martin's Vineyard constituted 
some person as his steward to hold in his stead the Courts 
Baron and Courts Leet, provided for in the patent, and who, 
it may be asked, except Matthew Mayhew, could have acted 
in that capacity ? ^ This additional move to foist the mano- 
rial system upon the islanders was generally resented, al- 
though the titular lord's domain was reduced to somewhat 
ridiculous proportions. It seemed as if an elephant had been 
drafted to crack a peanut. Fortunately, the territory involved 
did not affect any of the English settlements, and before the 
new lord could do much mischief, if he were so inclined, the 
great revolution in England had overthrown King James, 
and all that he represented, and a Protestant King and Queen 
were installed in their seats upon the throne of Great Britain. 



^N. Y. Col. Mss., XXXIII, 130. 

'He was acting as steward from 1690 to 1699 (Dukes Deeds, V, 89). 



177 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

The opponents of our local government under King 
James and his appointees, were much rejoiced, as they fore- 
saw in it the probable end of the manorial system and all 
it meant. 

It will not be necessary to detail the yearly story of the 
condition of official ''nepotism" under the regime of Matthew 
Mayhew, as it is only a repetition of that of the elder Mayhew, 
and a little worse. For the next five years the bench remained 
the same as already given, but Matthew Mayhew was in- 
duced to resign one of his offices, which was immediately 
filled by the appointment of one of his cousins. In 1690, 
the official list of county officers was completed by drafting 
every available male of Matthew Mayhew's immediate rela- 
tives. With himself as chief justice were associated his step- 
father, Richard Sarson, his brother-in-law, Thomas Daggett, 
and his brother, Thomas Mayhew, as justices; and the officers 
of the court were Thomas Harlock, his cousin, as sheriff 
Benjamin Smith, his brother-in-law, as king's attorney, and 
himself as clerk and register.^ Further comment is un- 
necessary. But greater events were taking place in the outer 
political world. In England, James had fled from his throne 
and become an exile in France, while his representative in 
New York, Sir Edmund Andros, was made a prisoner in 
Boston and shipped to London for trial. ^ The reign of the 
dreaded "Popish King" and his satellites was at an end, 
and the Protestant William of Orange, and Mary his consort, 
received the crown he had abandoned. 

THE NEW PROTESTANT REGIME IN NEW YORK. 

The rejoicings which spread over New England at this 
bloodless revolution were none the less hearty than in Eng- 
land itself, and the treatment accorded the hated Andros in 
Boston almost bordered on personal indignity.^ As the 
personal representative of the Catholic king, he received short 

IN. Y. Col. Mss., XXXVII, 230. 

^A letter from Capt. Mackenzie to Francis Nicholson, dated Aug. 15, 1689, states: 
"it is reported that Coll: Dongan is likewise kept prisoner, who went thither to sell 
Martins Vineyard." (N. Y. Col. Doc, III, 614.) 

^In New York, the Lieutenant Governor, Francis Nicholson, was deposed by a 
party headed by Jacob Leisler, and the accession of William and Mary was then pro- 
claimed in June, 1689. Leisler assumed the powers of a royal lieutenant governor, 
without warrant of authority, but resigned them to Governor Sloughter on his arrival. 
He was prosecuted for treason and convicted. Sloughter signed his death warrant, 
and he was executed May 16, 1691, and his death is regarded as an act of manifest 
injustice. 

178 



Administration of Maj. Matthew Mayhew 

shrift, not entirely merited by his general excellence as governor 
of New York and New England, but all that he stood for 
became a part of his personality in the eyes of Puritan Massa- 
chusetts. To all but the official family on the Vineyard the 
change was most welcome, as it meant a reorganization of 
the provincial governments, not only in personnel, but in 
principles and ideals. It indicated the passing of absolutism 
and the inauguration of popular sovereignty. There is not 
on file any communication from Mayhew expressing his joy 
at the change of government, or a welcome for the successor 
of Andros. The new royal governor, sent out by William 
and Alary, was Henry Sloughter, who arrived at Fort James 
early in 1691. 

But the absence of an address of welcome and fealty 
from Mayhew was compensated for by one from Simon 
Athearn, and aside from its interest as a contemporary view 
of "the conditions upon the Vineyard, it shows how the oppo- 
sition regarded the new order of things, and hoped for a cor- 
rection of their wrongs. It is therefore printed in full, and 
is as follows : — 

May it please your Excelency 

To lend an ear, Considering the things nessessary for the good & wel 
being of the English Inhabutants of martains vinyard who are your servants 
waiting for your good & faverable settlement of your powerfuU afars with 
us : more espetially me your most humble servant who desiers to praise God 
for your safe ariveall at new york with their majesties Commishon whom 
God have raised up to be the deliverers of our nations: when tidings first 
Came to us of the Revolution we may truly say (we ware like thay that 
dream) skersly beleveing so wonderful! a deliveranc : Now forasmuch God 
have be pleased to give us such gratious soverans a king to be our nursing 
father Sc a quene to be our nursing mother, thro many trobls we are in hops 
to Receive his promise of our Judges as at first and our Counselers as at the 
begining & our eyes shall see our teachers &c 

And now may it not be said God is Rissen, and have taken hold of 
Judgment against the nations untell he have made his Jerusalem the praise 
of thewholl Earth. Now to strengthen our things that remaine &toreviewe 
those that are reddy to die, we pray your aid, to settell the maintenans of the 
work of the ministrie on martains vineyard, by the tithes. And the wholl 
Inhabutants to be Comprehended in two assemblys on the Lords day (as it 
now is) I hvimbly conceve there is an Eternal warant, Christ being a priest 
for ever after the order of melchisedec, it being in the order of melchisedec to 
receive tithes of Abraham: and for what of this settelment, Coms much 
disorder, both of Contention among the people, and the ministrie often 
Left vacant : also we pray your ayd that all other rats be raised on the sub- 
sittie for want of this: there is much rong dun for sumtims the old law book 
of york is made use ofe to raise mony on our Cattell, at three tims the valu, 

179 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

and somtims great rong don by the partiall notions of men who rate persons, 
for that they have not, our Creaturs runing together, we know not what 
we have untell the summer and the shearing time Com: only tillage have 
they rated, all other lands and meddows have beene rate free, (which will 
not be purchesed with cattel here being about fifty-eight English Inhabutant 
familys on the Hand & most pore, four of the wich Justices of the peace 
their estats being rate free burthen the rest, when in our nation thay serve 
their King & Cuntry for their honnor, but if Justisces of the peace be Com- 
mishonated (all of one family, what and how thay please to raise monys on 
the people, without an assembly, the Justisces Estats being rate free) it 
shews the people are at a low Eeb, but wee hope to be delivered from such 
arbatrary power, who fish in devishons of the people, and seeke not their 
peace. We hope your Excelency will defend our towns, in their patant 
Rights formerly graunted By Governor Lovlesse of new york, to all intents 
and purposes, Commandement was given to devid the land of Cannan unto 
the tribs by lot, when possest by the heathen, so our former Governor gave 
us our townships bounded by pattant to all intents and purposes, whereby 
we humbly conceive the right by Eternal Equity to be ours; and we hope 
to be defended in all our town rights to all intents and purposes against 
Corronal dongans purchas, we are farre of and know not the time but I 
humbly desier the honorable assembly would Consider our settelment: 
And that the wholl trade of disposing any strong Liquers to the Indians of 
the vineyard be stopt, which is a thing of so evil Consequenc in druncken- 
nesse Eydlnesse & selling their corn for nought, which brings them into 
poverty and stealing for hunger: The Indians might and would be servis- 
able in the defenc of the Hand against the Enemy, And doutlisse it would 
be their great incuragement if your Exelency would be pleased to bestow 
an hundred armes with amonition for the use of the Indians on the vineyard 
in time of danger to be delivered unto them and when dainger is past to be 
returned in to the English keeping in store for the same use: thro marcy we 
have bene preserved from the foran Enemy, And we trust to be preserved 
hoping your Excelency will tak Care of us in these perrelous tims desiering 
your Excelency to pardon the boldnesse of your servant who have thought 
it my duty thus in writing to pay my most humble Respects unto your Ex- 
elency desiering the God of heaven to increase in you that wisdom which 
is from above, and to blesse you with a long and happy Life, which is the 
prayer of your most humble servant to be Commanded. 

SIMON ATHEARN 

from tisbury 
on the vineyard 
this 6th day 
June 1691.^ 

THE VINEYARD ANNEXED TO MASSACHUSETTS. 

The leading men of Massachusetts had set in motion, 
early in 1690, a plan for the renewal of their charter, and the 
Plymouth people joined them in the same design, sending 
over the Rev. Increase Mather of Boston and Rev. Ichabod 

»N. Y. Col. Mss., XXXVII, i6i. 

180 



Administration of Maj. Matthew Mayhew 

Wiswall of Duxbury, who with Sir Henry Ashurst, constituted 
a committee to obtain from the English government new and 
broader charters. Each colony was striving to be independent 
of the other, while the royal authorities were intent upon 
consolidation. Indeed, the agents found a disposition fixed 
to annex Plymouth to New York, and only after long nego- 
tiations, extending over the period of a year, was the matter 
settled, though not to the satisfaction of all parties. The 
annexation of Plymouth to New York was averted, and the 
colonies of Massachusetts and Plymouth were united into 
what is now the present commonwealth, and, what is of local 
interest to the Vineyard, our island was detached from its 
old connection with New York and added to the new gov- 
ernment of Massachusetts. In what manner this was brought 
about is not known, but that it was done without the knowl- 
edge of the officials of the Province of New York, and un- 
known as well to the Mayhews, is evident from all that fol- 
lowed. The charter of William and Mary, dated October 7, 
in the third year of their reign (1691), provided for the juris- 
diction of Massachusetts over certain described territory, 
not necessary to be rehearsed, "together with the Isles of 
Capawick and Nantuckett near Cape Cod." In London 
at that time with these agents, was Sir William Phips, Kt., 
of Boston, who through the influence of Mather received the 
nomination as governor of the new Province of Massachu- 
setts.^ Sir William had been knighted by King James in 
1687 for recovering the treasures from a Spanish ship which 
had been wrecked at St. Kitts, and in August, 1690, was the 
commander of the disastrous expedition sent against Quebec. 
He arrived in Boston on May 14, 1692, with the charter, 
and set about the prosecution of his duties thereunder, with 
considerable vigor, if not with entire discretion. 

'William Phips was the son of James Phips, a gunsmith, from Bristol, England, 
and was bom on the Kennebec river, at the present Phipsburg, in 1651. He died in 
London in 1695, and a monument in the church of S. Mary, Woolnoth, still stands 
to his memory. He was governor during the horrible witchcraft delusion. 



/ 



181 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

CHAPTER XVI. 

The Vineyard and the Massachusetts Charter of 1692. 

Within the first week after his arrival, Sir William Phips, 
Knight, Captain General and Governor-in-Chief of the Prov- 
ince of Massachusetts Bay, issued his warrants to the towns 
in the province requiring them to send representatives to 
"the great and Generall Court to be convened at Boston on 
the eighth day of June, 1692," and it is known that one 
reached Edgartown in due season. Great indeed was the 
consternation among the ruling element. They were in- 
credulous, as no previous intimation of the political changes 
had come to their knowledge. Chief Magistrate Mayhew 
forbade any action upon the warrant, and at once notified 
the New York authorities. The opposition were as unprepared 
as the Mayhews, but both began to fight for position. The 
warrant for the election prescribed the qualification for electors 
as "a freehold of 40s per ann(um) or other property to the 
value of £40 sterling," a limitation which reduced the voters 
in the two towns to small proportions. The wealth of the 
island was largely centered at Edgartown, where the officials 
resided, and on a test vote, based upon the property quali- 
fications, the farmers of Tisbury could not secure a repre- 
sentative if there should be a general vote. So Athearn con- 
cluded to select an Edgartown man to receive the suffrage 
of the qualified electors, and Joseph Norton stood as the can- 
didate of the opposition. It is not known that there was 
any effort on the part of the Mayhews to contest the election, 
as they held the proceedings to be illegal, and warned all 
concerned against participation in the affair. Doubtless this 
was their attitude, and when Norton was chosen, they applied 
their ''influences" to persuade him not to attend the session, 
under penalty of their displeasure, and the consequences of 
disloyalty to the lawful government established by the duke 
and his successors. And they nearly succeeded in frightening 
him off. It required all of the persuasive powers of Athearn 
to make him stick, as it was of vital importance at this junc- 
ture that there should be no hesitating or doubtful parti- 
sans. 

182 



The Vineyard and the Massachusetts Charter 

THE MAYHEW ELEMENT OPPOSES THE CHANGE. 

The recollections of the "Dutch Rebellion" had not yet 
faded from the memories of those survivors who had "felt 
the halter draw" and the example of it was held up by the 
authorities to deter the opposition from active connection 
with the new government. All the relatives of the Mayhew 
family were busy in the campaign of education. The most 
energetic of them was one the most distantly connected, 
Benjamin Skiff, and it goes without saying that all sorts of 
arguments were used to keep the freemen of the Vineyard 
from rallying around the leader of the opposition. He was 
handicapped, however, by the financial status of his sup- 
porters. He constantly refers to "the pore of tisbury," and 
describes the residents of that town as having "but small 
cottages to sleep in and buy their heay from Chillmark." It 
was not yet the time of manhood suffrage, and influence was 
measured by pounds, shillings, and pence. But to return to 
the formal efforts of Matthew Mayhew in his letter to the 
New York authorities. The tenor of his letter is not known, 
but the record of it appears from the entry in the minutes of 
the council : — 

At a Councell held at Fort William Henry the 12th of August 1692. 
.... Upon reading a Letter from Major Mayhew of Martin's Vineyard 
to Wm. Nicolls Esq. signifying that the Inhabitants of the Islands in Dukes 
County are disturbed by some Warrant or order directed to a Constable or 
some other Person from Boston in New England, as if those Islands were 
under that Government, to their great Disorder and Confusion. 

Their Majesties Pleasure being noe ways signified to those in authority 
now concerning the Surrender of any Part of this Province or Dependencys 
unto any Persons whatsoever: 

ORDERED that the Officers civil and military of the said County be 
required and they are hereby required to continue in their obedience to 
their Ma 'ties Authority settled over this their Province pursuant to their 
severall respective Commissions untill further orders.^ 

The clerk of the council, under date of August 18, 
made reply to Mayhew' s letter in behalf of Mr. Nicolls, which 
adds some further particulars : — ^ 

Maj'r Mayhew 

Mr Nicolls having Prduced yor Letter in Council the same being Read 
it is the Resolution of the Council that you are to Continue in your Obedi- 
ence & subjeccon to their Ma'ties Government settled over their Province 



^N. Y. Col. Mss., Coiincil Minutes, VI, 114. 

^Ibid., XXXVIII, 170. A copy is in Mass. Archives, II, 386. 



183 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

of N. Yorke pursueant to the severall Commissions Civil & military which 
you have received Their Ma'ties nor their predecessors having made any 
Alteracon of the like nature without signifying their pleasure by their Letters 
mandatory to the Governor or Command 'r in Cheife & Council which 
when we shall receive you shall quickly be advised of yor Duty in the mean 
time if any person or persons within yor County Doe make any disturbance 
they must be proceeded against for the same at their perill. 

I am advised that yor taxes are levied and wonder they are not trans- 
mitted unto their Ma'ties Collr & Recr Generall I desire you to be vigilant 
& Carefull to maintaine their Ma'ties peace and to advise yor bretheren 
the like I desire to hear from you by the first opportunity of the Condicon of 
yor Islands & of any accident shall happen. 

While this harmless correspondence was being carried 
on, Simon Athearn was laying the foundations of a new politi- 
cal structure for himself and the opposition. He accepted 
the fact that a change had taken place and at once put him- 
self in communication with the authorities of Massachusetts, 
to whom almost twenty years ago he had sent that fateful 
appeal to be taken in under their protection. Now they 
had been taken in unexpectedly, but none the less gladly and 
acceptably. Failures in the past did not discourage him, 
and he essayed this attempt to enlist support as hopefully 
as though he had never met with defeats. Accordingly, he 
sent the following communication to Sir William and the 
council in June, for consideration at the first session of the 
General Court : — 

Wee most humbly petition that marthas vineyard and Elzebeth Use 
and its dependances be considered and made on(e) town or place So one 
Representative might serve for the whole for we are but about fifty 7 or 8 
famelys on the Hand: the east end of marthas vineyard was formerly 
granted by Mr Tho. Mayhew the elder and sence confirmed by the Gov- 
ernor of New York unto the Inhabitants freehoulders theire heires or as- 
signes for ever to be a town ship knowne by the name of Edger town the 
western most bounds of Edgertown is on the north side of the Hand at holms 
his hole or the Springs at the head of that Cove called Weahtaqua and 
bounded on the south side of the Hand called tickanomans neck and so 
including all the east end of the Hand and the Hand called Chapaquiget 
with natuk: Tisbury and Chillmark and its dependances is bounded by 
said bounds of Edger town. 

Your most humble petitiner prayeth that tisbury Chillmark & its 
dependances with all the west end of the Hand might be made one parrish 
for the better Carrying one of the maintenanc of the ministerie there and 
under one constable one assesment for their majesties service. There is 
nessessety of Courts of Justice on marthas vineyard I think needful as 
Capt'n John Gardner of Nantuckett have advised thar one County Court 
of Common pleas be held one a year one year at marthas vineyard & one 
year at nantukett & in case of appeale to boston &c 

184 



The Vineyard and the Massachusetts Charter 

The military officers of the Company at Chillmark and tisbury are 
Capt. Benjamin Skiffe, Left'nt Isaac Chase, Insign John Manter men 
approved: we propound as most fitt persons at Edger town Mr John 
Butler to be Captain, Mr Thos: Doggett to be Left'nt, Mr Jacob Norton 
to be Insign & Mr Joseph Norton to be Sheriff. 

In most humble wise we present this to the honourable Council for 
Consideration : if nothing be don' but expenc of mony & time it will be a 
matter of discorragment to the good minded people And cause for the enemy 
to Insult. 

Your most humble petitiner shall ever pray for your prosperous 
Government.^ 

SIMON ATHEARN 

SIMON ATHEARN COURTS THE NEW AUTHORITIES. 

Athearn's recommendations were generally fair, there 
being two of the Mayhew regime included in his list of "fitt 
persons," but the only one who profited by this appeal was 
Joseph Norton, who was commissioned as sheriff by Governor 
Phips in the following month." At the first sitting of the 
General Court no comprehensive legislation was enacted, but 
a naval office was created, with a provision that an officer 
should be appointed "at Marthas Vineyard .... to enter 
and clear all vessells passing to and from hence, but not to 
be accounted a port for the delivery or lading or any of the 
enumerated commodities."^ It was evident to the Massa- 
chusetts legislators that there were factional disturbances on 
the Vineyard which must be investigated before much could 
be done for the best interests of the place. Therefore, after 
the adjournment of the session, the governor and council 
decided to despatch Major-General John Walley to the scene 
of the conflict, and Sewall notes in his diary under date of 
Sept. 30, 1692, that "the Major Generall sets out for Eliza- 
beth's Hand and Martha's Vineyard."* The Mayhews were 
still unreconciled to the situation and endeavoring to find 
some flaw in the charter which would restore to them their 
former grip upon affairs. Already one office had passed out 
of the family, and the outlook was ominous. Doubtless, 
many moves were made of which we have no record, and 
many letters exchanged between the ex-chief magistrate and 
his New York supporters to block the impending transfer 

^Mass. Arch., CXII, 422. 

^His commission is dated July 25, 1692, and is found in Mass. Archives, XL, 
266. See also Ibid., Vol. 276, for a petition of Atheam for this appointment. 
'Acts and Resolves, I, 35. 
*Diar>', I, 366. 

i8s 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

of allegiance. To conclude otherwise would discredit the 
political partisanship of Mayor INIayhew, and minimize his 
dislike of the Puritan colony, which had been set in authority 
over him. 

Governor Phips taking advantage, evidently, of the local 
property interests which ^lajor Wait Winthrop had in the 
Elizabeth Islands, commisioned him to go to the Vineyard 
and add his influence to that of Walley in composing the dis- 
turbed spirits of the old regime, and if successful to admin- 
ister the official oaths to them as officers of the new government. 
The conclusions of Winthrop after an interview with the 
Major were decidedly pessimistic as to the success of his 
mission, and he reported that it would be necessary to make 
some demonstration in force to bring the recalcitrants to terms. 
His letter addressed to Secretary Addington, makes an inter- 
esting contribution to the story of current events, and is as 
follows : — ^ 

After I had been here and at my Island some time without opertunity 
of geting over to the Vineyard, Mr. Mayhew came over and went to Barn- 
stable and as he returned I met him at this place, and after some discours 
told him I had his Excellencys order to administer the oath to himselfe 
and the other officers which the law required, in order to their excercising 
their Places they were comissionated to, but he utterly refused to accept of 
any place himselfe, but said he knew not but his brother and Mr. Newcomb 
might, which he should encourage, and so went home in his canoe and after 
some time returned me the enclosed papers,^ but before that I was well 
assured that none of the officers (unless one or two who were not at home), 
would take the oathes, therefore resolved tho I had met with the opertunity 
not to have gone over to Expose the Govr'mt as well as myselfe to contempt 
amongst such a crew as I understand are there, having no other orders but 
to administer the oaths; and upon their refusal must have but made same 
return which I now doe. I hope his Excelency will see cause to take effect- 
uall orders to setle that place before thay have farther orders from York, 
which I believe thay will expect as soon as a sloop now in Tarpolin Cove 
can get there, by which I believe thay have made returne to som of the en- 
closed papers, and desired farther directions; the least that can be don I 
believe will be to send the sloop ^ and some persons of the Council to be 
joyned in comission with such Justices of the place as may be apointed to 
to hold a Session or Court there which would effectually settle all matters 
in that place. I mean not the justices appointed in the former comission 
by the word crew before mentioned, who I believe would be satisfied if 

'The letter has no date, but is marked " received October 21, 1692," and was 
probably uTitten at Woods Hole. (Mass. Archives, II, 383-4.) 

^The enclosures were the documents printed on page 183, together with a requisi- 
tion for ;£43:i5s as the share of Dukes County in the expense consequent on the 
defence of Albany, and the reply of the Mayhews to General Winthrop. 

^Winthrop refers to the sloop of war belonging to the Province and used for 
patrolling the coast to look out for armed French ships. 

186 



The Vineyard and the Massachusetts Charter 

thay thought their titles would not be questioned, and would then, some 
of them, be sutable to be continued in comission 

While the Major, in his chagrin at the turn of affairs 
"did thrice refuse the crown," and professed wilKngness for his 
brother to hold office, yet his actions belied his words. He 
n )t only counseled others on the Vineyard to hold aloof, but 
used the same tactics among the people of Nantucket. James 
Coffin and William Worth, in a letter dated October 13, 
state the situation on that island : — 

"Mr Mayhew sent us over his shrife and Ben: Smith and one man 
more with the governors orders which we have sent his Excellency a true 
coppy: at there arivall they ware very high but we discourst with them 
till we made them calme: but in short we are all well sattisfied by what 
we understand by them that Mr Mayhew at thare returne with our Answar 
will goe directly for York: and we have reason to conclude wil doe us 
all the mischife that he is aboil to doe: and by al that we can gather he 
hath bin & is the only Instruement to stir up the governer of York against 
us.* 

During the performance of this side-show, far removed 
from the knowledge of the Massachusetts authorities, the 
Major was trimming his sails to catch the contrary breezes 
should it finally become necessary for him to seek a harbor 
on the strange coast to which his craft was drifting. He was 
playing a fore-and-aft game now, and as an example of his 
company manners when dealing with Winthrop as emissary 
of Governor Phips, the following letter in his own hand- 
writing and signed by the other two judges of the court, may 
show the reverse of the picture for which he posed in all 
humility and deference to the new conditions : — ' 

Sir Wee cannot think that our retaining and exercising our severall 
places of trust under their Majesties for their service in the province 
New Yorke should be any offence to the Governor of their Province of 
Massachusets Bay in New England: we having lately received orders 
from Benjamin Fletcher Esq their Majesties Gov'rn'r of that province 
commanding and requiring of us there unto on penalty of being sent for 
to answer such default before him in Councell and having taken oath to 
govern this County by the lawes of that province before his arivall and think 
wee may justly suppose himself as their Majesties Governor of that p'vince 
to have order concerning there Islands, having for so long time appertained 
thereunto: and shall hope if not request that his Excellency will admit 
of time to be therein resolved: ourselves being no waies inclined to one 
or the other government: otherwise then to manifest our obedience to 

'Letter to Capt. John Gardiner. Coffin and Worth wrote a reply to Major 
Mayhew, which was non-committal in character, stating they could not take any 
definite steps, "for many reasons," basing it on the absence of Captain Gardiner. 

^Mass. Archives, II, 387. 

187 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

their Majesties commands, which wee thought most to signifie to yourself, 
understanding that his excellency has given yorselfe some orders concern- 
ing this County, which is all at present from, 

Your friend & servant, 

MATT- MAYHEW ^ ^^^^^ Majesties jus- 

RICHARD SARSON V ^j^^f ^^ *^ P^'^^^ f,°^ 

THOMAS MAYHEW ^^^^^ C^^J.^^ ^^.^he 

^ provmce of New York 

All these conditions should have resulted to the advantage 
of Athearn, who began to see the reward of his years of contest 
for the improvement of the political condition of his home. 
The conferences held with the Mayhew officials by General 
Walley were productive of a better understanding, as it proved, 
but all contemporary evidence clearly gives us the idea that 
they were convinced against their will, and their acquiesence 
in the new conditions tentative and perfunctory. Meanwhile, 
Athearn was busy with voice and pen working for an entirely 
new deal in the offices. After the visit of the major-general, 
he addressed another paper to the governor and council 
relative to the settlement of affairs here, in October, 1692,^ 
and a copy in full is herewith given : — 

being sensable of much trobl on marthas vineyard for want of dew 
settelment of the affairs of that Hand And Considering the present state of 
persons & things there I humbly shew that if Mr Andrew Newcomb be 
made Cheefe Justice And Mr Joseph Norton & Mr James Allen Justices 
there who are reputed welthy and having such Influence in the people 
there will be most Reddy way to settel your government there and wheras 
Capt'n Ben Skiffe have bene very bissie against the government from this 
place And Mr Isaac Chase the Leueten't without oath he pleading for the 
quakers makes me think he will not take an oath : I humbly shew that if 
the foresaid Mr James Allen be made Capt'n & mr peter Robinson be made 
Leueten't of the Company of tisbury and Chillmark is the most likely way 
to bring the Compeny to obediance also unto this Authority thay having 
much influenc in the people by relations &c 

My neighbour mr Norton is gon hom being tyered out with tarrying 
long and nothing don to effect. After he was chosen & summoned to attend 
the enemy had perswaided him not to Com but I going to his house laboured 
much with him untill I had his promise to meet me at the boat. 

And now I am left alone waiting for your Conduct that the enemy may 
not have the opertunity to put out my Right Eye trusting now at length 
there will be spedey cure taken for our better settlement. 

Your most humble petitioner shall still pray for your prosperous 
Government.^ 

SIMON ATHEARN 
October 1692 

'From the wording of the paper, it is evident that it was written in Boston. The 
second session of the General Court began on Oct. 12, 1692. 
^Mass. Archives, CXII, 424. 

188 



The Vineyard and the Massachusetts Charter 

THE MAYHEWS SURRENDER TO SAVE THEIR OFFICES. 

It is evident from the tone of this that Athearn was not 
progressing as rapidly as he expected, and that success was 
by no means assured. The vested interest of the old officials 
and the proprietors was still an important factor in the problem. 
Athearn by this time had dropped Skiff from his list of 
"trustys," as he might have foreseen would have to be done, 
sooner or later, and Quaker Isaac Chase had no fighting 
blood in him. Matthew Mayhew and his supporters now 
came to Boston to take a personal hand in the conflict, while 
Athearn and Norton were "tyered out with tarrying long 
and nothing don to effect." Conferences with the councillors 
of the Phips government doubtless convinced Mayhew that 
the charter of William and Mary included Martha's Vineyard 
by implication, if not by name, but he contended that "Capa- 
wick" was not the proper designation for Martin's or Martha's 
Vineyard, and that the question of annexation to Massa- 
chusetts was a legal question, dependent upon the nomen- 
clature of the island. He maintained that "Capawick" was 
a small island at the extreme end of Chappaquiddick, while 
the Indian name of the Vineyard was Nope. There could 
be no question about Nantucket, but he saw the ''hand- 
writing on the wall," and like a good politician concluded that 
he must "gracefully grant that which he could not with safety 
refuse." For the Massachusetts authorities were insistent 
that, name or no name, their agents had obtained the consent 
of the king to include the island known to them as Capa- 
wick and Martin's or Martha's Vineyard, and they proposed 
to exercise their authority. Without waiting for the Mayhews 
to come to terms they proceeded to legislate for the organiza- 
tion of the local government, and on November 25, passed 
an act regulating the courts on the Vineyard. This must 
have had the effect desired, and the ''Old Guard" surrendered 
in the face of political extinction. Isaac Addington wrote 
to General Walley on December 8th: "The Island of Marthas 
Vineyard is well Setled, the Mayhews have complyed with 
the demands of the Government."^ At the same time Coun- 
cillor Nathaniel Thomas presented to the governor and coun- 
cil a report "of the Settlement of Marthas Vineyard." It 
was as follows : — 

^Mass. Archives, III, 47. 

189 



/ 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

that Mr Matthew Mayhew, Mr Thomas Mayhew & Mr James 

Allin had accepted Justices of the Peace within said Island and taken their 
Oaths. He also moved upon their desire and at the desire of the generality 
of the Inhabitants that Mr Richard Sarson might be added to the Com- 
mission of the Peace.' 

Thus the same old famihar names were restored to the 
places which they had occupied, and the only concession to 
those outside the breastworks was the inclusion of one of 
their nominees, James Allen. As Simon Athearn character- 
ized it, it was "a Cifer to make the Summ." Once more he 
had lost to the "enemy." He was the last warrior left upon 
the field, and the enemy had "put out his Right Eye." In 
the fray his character and reputation had been assailed, with- 
out doubt, and the number and standing of his party had 
been questioned before the council, so he set about fortifying 
his position with a petition from his backers on the island, 
but it was too late to accomplish his purpose. This petition 
was dated "from marthas vineyard desember the 19 1692" 
and bears fourteen signatures, of the following named persons : 
Andrew Newcomb, Joseph Norton, James Pease, Jacob Nor- 
ton, John Butler, Thomas Norton, William Vinson, Thomas 
Woolling, Thomas Butler, Isaac Norton, Benjamin Norton, 
Moses Cleaveland, John Pease, and Thomas Vinson. From 
the number of Norton signers the council might have con- 
sidered it a case of Norton versus Mayhew, but the document 
was a certificate of respectability for Simon Athearn and an 
explanation of their position. "Wee were not willing to 
speeke when the Gentlemen were," they say, "Because that 
your Excellencys orders might be setteled in Peease & quiet- 
nes." But while this modesty was being maintained the 
"enemy" were not so afflicted, and were willing to trade their 
former allegiance for renewal of their hold upon the island, 
and "good politics" prevailed. "Now wee are willing," they 
continue, "to give your Exsellency an acount of Mr. Simon 
Athearn we Looke upon him to be a well acomplish man: 
he is no drunkerd nor no Card player nor a man that free- 
quint tavorns,^ but wee doe know but he may have his feialing 
as well as other men: for estate: few or none upon Hand 

'Coiuicil Records, II, 207. Dated Dec. 7, 1692. 

^This is believed to be a covert allusion to Matthew Mayhew, as a number of 
contemporary documents bear similar comments in relation to him. Athearn states 
that Benjamin Smith and Thomas Harlock had told him that "they of Edgartown" 
had consulted together "that Major Mayhew Might be discarded because of his vice 
& debochery." (Suffolk Court Files, 4605.) 

190 



The Vineyard and the Massachusetts Charter 

goeth beyound him & for a Justes wee Looke upon him as 
fit as any man here." ^ This might have been all very true, 
but it was in the nature of death certificate. The plums had 
been picked and the feast was over, and Athearn had secured 
two places for his friends, Allen and Norton, while the Mayhews 
still sat on the bench and could deal out "family justice" 
to him as they had done in the past quarter of a century. 

THE PAPER "war" BETWEEN PHIPS AND FLETCHER. 

If the New York authorities did anything to protect their 
claims to jurisdiction, except wait for some overt acts, it is 
not of record.^ It is supposed that Mayhew informed the 
Boston government that the New York authorities did not 
admit the alleged transfer of jurisdiction, and in order to 
enlighten them upon the subject Sir William Phips, on Jan. 2, 
1692-3, apprised them of his appointment, and enclosed a 
copy of the charter of Massachusetts Bay, by which Martha's 
Vineyard had become a part of the new Province. At about 
the same time, Governor Fletcher of New York, who had 
succeeded Sloughter in 1692, desiring to find out the actual 
claims of the Massachusetts people, sent a personal mes- 
senger to Boston to interview Phips, informing him that it 
was his intention to make an official visit to Martha's Vine- 
yard in the spring, "and that he should be glad to see Sir 
Wm there." The bearer was Thomas Clarke, and his report 
of the interview gives an insight into the choleric, bombastic 
character of Phips. 

I acquainted him I had orders from his Excellency Governour Fletcher 
to signifye to him that he intended to be att Martin's Vineyard early in the 
Spring, before he went to Albany," said Clark in the account of his ex- 
periences. "I acquainted him the Governour of New York would be glad 
to see him there. Sir William Phips asked if I came to challenge him. I 
replyed I came to delever my message, which I had done. He asked me 
if I had any such orders. I did tell him I had private instructions for my 
selfe, which I would not shew him nor any other. He told me if they were 
my own words I was an impudent fellow. I told him I thought soe to, but 
the words were nott mine. Sir Wm Phips did tell me he did take the words 
as a challenge and would certainly meett with Governour Fletcher. I told 

him he might interprete the words as he pleased I prayed an 

answer relating to the Vineyard. He bid me tell Governour Fletcher that 
if he came to Martin's Vineyard to medle with the government he would 

'Mass. Archives, CXII, 435. Printed in full in the sketch of Athearn. 

'"Governor Fletcher did in the yeare Ninety two Send a Letter and messengers 
to our Island (Nantucket) requesting our obedience to him, &c.," says John Gardiner 
in a petition in 1693. (Mass. Archives, CXIII, 112.) 

191 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

take care to secure him that he should never retume back againe. I asked 
Sir Wm if I should retume this for answer to the buissinesse of the Vineyard. 
He tould me Yes. Sir, I shall be shure to doe it ; so you had best, said Sir 
William.' ' 

This truculent attitude seems like comic opera, but it 
was merely the silly nature of the man who had gone to Quebec 
two years before and demanded its surrender in magnificent 
phrases, while the defenders were jeering at him over the 
parapets of the strongest fortress on the continent. Then the 
leader of that quixotic expedition hoisted sail and steered for 
home, filled with excuses for its failure. Such was the man 
whose personality it is necessary to know to appreciate the 
ridiculous features of this situation. "In Massachusetts, the 
history of his administration is a melancholy monument," 
says an historical authority, "for his public breach of the 
peace was a scandal that never befel any other chief magis- 
trate.'" 

Clark's report angered Governor Fletcher to the fullest 
extent, and he undertook to bandy words with Phips, an art 
in which the latter could excel. Fletcher wrote him that he 
was an ill-mannered person — no gentleman in fact. This 
style of paper warfare suited Phips entirely, as it was without 
danger. So he drew up the following letter and despatched 
it toNew York: — 

Boston the 27th January 1692-3 
Sir: 

Your absurd letter plainly deminstrates that if (as you say) I have for- 
gott manners to Gentlemen, I have forgott what you never had. You send 
a herauld to give mee a challenge to meet you in the Spring at Marthas 
Vineyard, wch by force you intend to take the Government of, notwith- 
standing their Majesties granted by their Royall Charter, whereby the 
government thereof is annexed to the Province of the Massachusetts Baye : 
and your jaylor hath been as insolent in delivering this challenge from you 
(wch he saith is by your positive order), as you have been inconsiderate in 
directing him soe to doe. For the difference (if any), is not to be decided 
by you alone. However if you are soe resolved, you may expect me att 
Marthas Vineyard in the Spring to assert that power wherewith their Ma- 
jesties have invested me, wch if you think fitt to dispute, I shal take such 
measures to defend as you may not like.^ 

IN. Y. Col. Doc, IV, 8. Clark adds: "He tould the Councill that I had chal- 
lenged him to meet Govemour Fletcher at the Vineyard; upon which I tould the Coun- 
cill I understood noe challenge in the words; I only tould Sir Wm that Govemour 
Fletcher did intend to be at Martin's Vineyard in the Spring & that he should be 
glad to see Sir Wm there." 

^James Savage, President of the Mass. Historical Society, in his[Gen. Dictionary, 
article on Phips. 

3N. Y. Col. Mss., IV, 6. 

192 



The Vineyard and the Massachusetts Charter 

That the doughty Sir William thought that this was a 
serious case of provincial warfare is quite evident from his 
actions, but it could have deceived no one else. He prepared 
for the anticipated struggle. Upon his representations the 
council ordered "that a Suitable vessell be taken up and 
Equipped for their Majesties service to Cruise in and about 
Marthas Vineyard Sound for the securing of Coasting Vessells 
until such time as their Majesties Frigates can be fitted out: 
his Excellency proposing that she be manned and furnished 
by the Captains of the Men of Warr." If Phips was obliged 
to fight Fletcher, he wished to have a frigate near by to act 
as his convoy to the battle grounds.^ 

THE NEW YORK AUTHORITIES DENY LEGALITY OF CHANGE. 

Meanwhile the letter which Sir William had sent to New 
York on Jan. 2, for some reason, did not reach there until 
Feb. 12, and Governor Fletcher "did recommend to the Coun- 
cel to meet this After noon (13th) to Consult of a Letter from 
Sir William Phips dated the 2nd of January come to Hand 
yesterday, with a printed Copy of the New England Charter, 
and to him give their Opinion under their Hands concerning 
Martha's Vineyard."' This they did, and rendered the fol- 
lowing opinion the same day : — 

His Excellency Ben: Fletcher &c this day having recommended to 
our Consideration a Letter from Sir William Phips, dated 2d of January 
last came to Hand yesterday with a printed Copy of their Ma 'ties L'tres 
Patent for erecting and Incorporating the Province of Massachusetts Bay 
in New England, not attested, concerning Martin's Vineyard and desiring 
our Advice: Upon Perusall of the said printed Copy having duly Con- 
sidered the same and the Piatt of New England before us, we doe finde that 
the North Halfe of the Isles of Shoals opposite to the mouth of Piscataqua 
River and the Isles of Capoag and Nantuckett to the Westward of Cape 
Cod are nominally included in the said Grant and in more general words 
all Islands and Inletts lyeing within ten Leagues directly opposite to the 
Maine Land; within the Bounds of the said L'tres Patent, which we are 
informed are many hundreds. And we are humbly of the Opinion that 
forasmuch as their Ma'ties have ascertained the North Halfe of the Isles 
of Shoals to the Massachusetts Bay leaving the South Half to the Province 
of New Hampshire and the Islands of Capoag and Nantuckett to the Massa- 
chusetts Bay, both which are to the Westward of Cape Cod, which is the 
southermost Bounds of their Patent, they can have noe pretence by the said 

'Council Records, VI, 42 (Alass.). This ridiculous and harmless farce went no 
further. Governor Fletcher did not make his spring visit to the Vineyard, and Sir 
William undertook no sanguinary procedures to defend his frontier. 

^Council Minutes, VI, 165 (N. Y.). 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

L'tres Patent to Martin's Vineyard or any other Island to the Westward of 
Nantuckett, which we humbly submitt and desire your Excellency will be 
pleased to recommend the same to their Ma'ties by their Secr'y of State 
for their Decision in that affair.' 

The arguments advanced by the members of the gov- 
ernor's council w^ere technical, and in the absence of direct 
knowledge from the home government, had some merit. It 
is difficult to understand why the Secretary of State had not 
informed the New York authorities of the change of juris- 
diction in the case of the Vineyard. The interpretation of 
the charter rested entirely upon the intent of the persons 
forming the conference at London in 1691, the agents of 
Massachusetts, and the members of the government detailed 
to draw up the document. But the New York officials were 
justified in holding an adverse position to the claims of Massa- 
chusetts on the ground of nomenclature and geography, as 
well as lack of due notice from the home office. Governor 
Fletcher adopted the report of his council and sent all the 
correspondence which had passed between him and Phips, 
with the opinion of the council, to London the following day. 
His letter is as follows : — 

New York February 14, 1692-3 
Sir: 

The papers I send with this will take more time to peruse than I doubt 
you can spare from Affaires of more weight and moment. They will shew 
you that I am placed by a very ill neighbour, who while I am laboring to 
compose and heal the wounds of this Province, occasioned by the highest 
outrages which could be committed by men in the time of Leisler took upon 
himself the Government. Sr Wm. Phips, as will appear by these attested 
copies of a letter from a pardoned Criminal quotes Sir Wm. Phips for author, 
will shew you the sentiments and Principalis of that knight; he has seized 
upon Martins Vineyard, which has ever been a part of this Government; 
it is neither named in their Chartar nor his Commission: those people 
hold all their lands by the seal of this Province, and have contributed to our 
publick charge for the defence of Albany, yett I must not levy warr against 
him, though provoked by his unmannerly letter to meet him there, which 
I would chearfully doe, but I hope to see him when without prejudice to 
their Majesties Interests (I can) assert our Resentment.^ 

'N. Y. Col. Mss. (Council Minutes, VI, 165). 
^N. Y. Col. Doc, IV, 2. 



194 



The Island under Puritan Control 



CHAPTER XVII. 

The Island under Puritan Control. 

The position of the New York authorities was the one 
privately held by the chief magistrate of the Vineyard. He 
had accepted the new regime with a mental reservation, for 
the sake of holding his position, but from subsequent events 
it is clear that Matthew Mayhew did not intend to adopt 
his new masters while there was yet hope that some flaw, 
fatal to the Massachusetts charter, could be found. Ac- 
cordingly, when the warrants for the annual election of a 
representative for the General Court to be held in June, 1693, 
came to the constable of Edgartown, Mayhew decided to send" 
one of the family from his home town, in combination with 
the pocket borough of Tisbury Manor, or Chilmark, as it 
had come to be called, to Boston as a matter of form. Ben- 
jamin Smith, his brother-in-law, was selected as the person 
for this mission, as "messenger" to the General Court. The 
Edgartown records, under date of May i, 1693, give the fol- 
lowing information on this matter : — 

Then the freeholders made choice of Major Mayhew and Mr Joseph 
Norton for to give instruction to the messenger in behalf of the public affair 
or concerns of the place whom they shall put in trust with these instructions 
that they shall give them to His Excellency the Governor of Boston and the 
Assembly there met in behalf of themselves as aforesaid. 

Two weeks later, the records contain an entry that 
''Whereas they find themselves in many respects not able to 
send an Assembly man to Represent them according to writ," 
the town of Edgartown voted to join with Chilmark in electing 
a person who shall receive instructions from both towns. 
This plan was evidently an evasion. It was strange that 
Edgartown could not comply with the warrant, and Chilmark 
could; and the use of the term "messenger" shows how every 
chance was utilized to save the technical standing against 
the Massachusetts government. The record goes on to say 
that "the freeholders of Chilmark made choice of Mr Sarson 
and Mr Allen for to give Instructions to the messenger above 
Ritten May the 15th 1693: then ware Votes or papers of the 
freeholders of Edgartown and the freeholders of Chilmark 

195 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

ware opened and Mr. Benjamin Smith is made choyce of for 
the messenger In behalf of themselves as above written."^ 

MAYHEW'S ACQUIESCENCE INSINCERE. 

The subterfuge of electing Benjamin Smith of Edgartown 
to represent Chilmark and receive his "instructions" from 
Major Mayhew and Richard Sarson may be understood when 
it is known that, at that time, there were not more than a 
half-dozen families resident in Chilmark. As a separate 
"town," however, it answered the purpose of Mayhew to 
impress the governor and general court with his numerical 
strength on the island. The instructions to the "messenger" 
were completed, and are of the greatest interest from a politi- 
cal and historical standpoint. They were formulated in the 
following paper, which Smith presented to the governor : — 

To his Excellency Sir William Phips, Knt, Capt Gen'll and Governor 
in Cheife of their Majesties Province of the Massachusetts Bay in 
New England, the Honourable Council & Representatives now 
convened in General Assembly: 

first I am according to the instructions given me from the townes of Edgartown 
& Chilmarke on Marthas vine-yard humbly to represent to your 
honours that our expectation is that we shall be secured in the enjoy- 
ments of such rights as we were privileged with the Government we 
were last belonging to by the goodness and bounty of their Majesties 
Royal Predecessors which we conceive hath been endeavored to be 
innovated by some persons amongst ourselves, more particularly: we 
have been priviledged with an act of assembly from New Yorke wherein 
Marthas Vineyard, Nantucket, Elizabeth Isles & Nomans-land was 
united into one County and we suppose not-with-standing some other- 
wise are Inclined that if it may so abide it will be most for their majesties 
Interest and good of their subjects. 

2dly I am to shew that it seemed grevious to us that we seem to be named in 
divers acts of the assembly here by a name in no waies acknowledged 
by us and we hope it will not seem strange if it be considered that we 
ought not to be ejected out of our freehold without triall which is the 
direct consequence as we conceive of acknowledging that name. 

3 ly I am to shew to yo'r Hon'rs that if an act be made that whereas in the 

divers acts mentioning Marthas Vineyard Alias Capowack, If it be 
inserted Marthas Vineyard and Capowick it will be more satisfactory 
to our people. 

4 ly I am to shew that we acknowledge ourselves no wise included in the 

Charter of the Massachusetts Province but as being an Island lying 
within ten leaugs of the Maine. 

5 ly I am to move that the records of our lands and evidences may not be 

liable to be removed hence where they have allwayes been keept by 

^Edgartown Records, I, 33, 34. 
196 



The Island under Puritan Control 

comission from their Majesties Royall predecessors as being the prin- 
cipal place in the County and most convenient for all who may be 
concerned. 
6 ly I am to move that respecting the different surcomstances these Islands 
lye under considered with the rest of the province we could humbly 
request that the former act against selling strong drink to the Indians 
may be enacted for these Islands. 

Your hon'rs humble servant in behalfe of the towne of Edgartown 

and Chillmarke on Marthas Vineyard/ 

BENJAMIN SMITH 

It made no particular difference to the Massachusetts 
officials whether the island came in as Capawick, Martin's 
or Martha's Vineyard, or as *'an Island lying within ten 
leaugs of the Maine," it was in, and they went right ahead 
to provide laws for its proper government. It is not thought 
that Tisbury was represented at this court, and Simon Athearn 
apparently rested on his oars. The General Court passed, on 
June 13, 1693, a comprehensive act to confirm all titles to 
property on the Vineyard, at this session, in order to quiet 
any misapprehensions arising from the change of jurisdiction. 
The text of this law is as follows : — 

That all lands, tenemants, hereditaments and other estate held and 
enjoyed by any person or persons, towns or villages within the said island 
of Capawock alias Marthas Vineyard .... by or under any grant or estate 
duely made or granted by any former government or by the successive 
governors of New York or any lawful right or title whatsoever, shall be by 
such person or persons, towns or villages, their respective heirs, successors 
and assigns, forever hereafter held and enjoyed accordingly to the true 
purport and intent of such respective grant, under and subject nevertheless 
to the rents and services thereby reserved or made payable ; and are hereby 
ratified and confirmed as fully and amply, to all intents, constructions and 
purposes, as the lands in any other parts or places within this Province by 
virtue of their Majesties Royal Charter.^ 

THE MAYHEWS FINALLY ACCEPT THE NEW ORDER. 

The New York authorities found that the claims of the 
Province of Massachusetts Bay to jurisdiction over Martha's 
Vineyard were well founded, and undertook no further ob- 
struction towards the new order of things. The Mayhew 
faction had no support from their old masters, and with as 
good grace as possible they settled down to make the best of 
it, and save as much as they could out of the wreck. The 

'Mass. Archives, CXII, 453. 
^^cts and Resolves, I, 11 7-8. 

197 



Histoiy of Martha's Vineyard 

next year Matthew INlayhew had himself elected as repre- 
sentative to the General Court for Edgartown, and was thus 
able to deal personally with anything that might come up 
inimical to his interests. 

The first matter that presented itself was a petition of 
Tisbury to be made one town with Chilmark, and the entire 
west end of the island. The petition reads as follows: — 

To his Excelency Sir William Phips Knight Capt'n Gener'll and 
Governor of the province of the massachusetts Bay, the honorable 
Councel And Representatives assembled: — 
Right honourable 

We your most humble petitioners the freeholders And Inhabitants of 

the town of Tisbury on marthas Vineyard humbly pray that an act may 

pass that Tisbury & Chilmark and the dependances with the westerly end 

of the Island of marthas Vineyard be made one town or parrash for the 

..^ better Carrying on all publique affaires there. So shall both and our pos- 

^ terity Ever give thanks And pray for your prosperous Government. 

Voted at a lea gel town meeting held in the Township of Tisbury by 
the freeholders Inhabitants of said Tisbury this 21 day of march 1694. 

forasmuch that our town Clark is at present from home The abvoe 
written is signed by me PETER ROBINSON 

Constable of Tisbury.^ 

This was one of Athearn's pet schemes, and had undeni- 
able merit. It was an absurd situation for three small com- 
munities, Tisbury, Chilmark, and the Gay Head region, to 
exist as separate precincts, having altogether not over three 
dozen white families in them, but it was against the policy 
of Mayhew to permit disintegration of his political structure 
and his family control of the wTst end through his manorial 
privileges. Nothing came of this petition at this time. Later 
in the year, on October 20th, Athearn thought to interest the 
General Court in his project by drawing a map showing "how 
the Hand of marthas vineyard is devided," and at the same 
time adding further comments on the advantages of con- 
- solidation. "Alreedy there ar Commission officers in the 
milterry over the foote Cumpeny of tisbury and Chillmark," 
he wrote, and added, "its a rare thing to Acomplish any thing 
without error: But if Major jNIayhew do deny the substanc 
of what I here offer to be true I humbly pettition oppertunity 
face to face to defend the truth above written." The two men 
were at the General Court together, and the duel was continu- 

^This vote is not on the town records, one of the portions probably lost. It was 
certified by Robert Cathcart, as clerk, on May 3, 1694. (Mass. Archives, CXIII, 58.) 

198 



The Island under Puritan Control 

ous. Athearn renewed his petition on the same day, in the 
form of an endorsement on his map. It is worth reprinting 
entire. 

October the 20, 1694 
I proposing to Major mayhew yesterday that Tisbury & Chilmark 
might be made one for the better carrying on all publique affairs there &c 
it being absolutely deny'd, moveth your suplycant humbly praying this 
honorable house that an act might passe That all lands on the north side 
of Chilmark & on the westerly of Chilmark including all the west end of 
marthas vineyard be made payable in all publique tax & rats To the Town 
of Tisbury: — if this be granted — Chilmark will soon petition to be one with 
tisbury — if major mayhew object this I say it seems as Expedient as for 
Chilmark to Jump over tisbury to Chikkemoo & to Jump over the Sound — 
to Elzebeths lis — the end of this motion is to heal our being cut in peces, 
and to reduce us all in to a competent Township to maintain the worship 
of God & serve our King & Cuntry which is the prayer of your most humble 
supplvcant 

SIMON ATHEARN 
major mayhew is only a Representative for Edgartown.^ 

The ?mswer to this petition was simple and to the point, 
for it lacked one essential qualification, that "it takes two to 
make a bargain." The General Court, on Oct. 23, said as 
follows : — 

In answer to the Petition of Mr Simon Athearn in the behalfe of 
tisbury, voted that when the whole Town of Chilmark they desire may be 
annext to them shall Request the same the Court may then consider of the 
granting of the same: and as to his proposal to abaten of their Tax Rate 
he not having yet made it appear that they are over Rated there can not 
be any abatement yet made." 

The reference to the abatement of taxes for Tisbury was 
in response to continued complaints of Athearn that that town 
was over taxed, as compared to Chilmark, or Tisbury Manor. 
He had said to the General Court that the province levy "will 
be very greevious to the pore of tisbury, and more espetialy 
to my knowledge the most of them have not raised their bread 
corn this present yeare." As he viewed the valuable farms 
in the Manor of Tisbury, paying but nominal rates on ac- 
count of the peculiar tenure of the land, he waxed hot and 
indignant, "being senceable of the enequality." So when the 
session was finished, Athearn returned home and prepared 
himself for a campaign upon the lines indicated by the legisla- 
ture. Continued defeats did not seem to discourage him. 



'Mass. Archives, CVI, 94-6. 
^Ibid., CXIII, 58. 



199 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

The freeholders of his township were called to consider the 
subject a month later, and passed the following vote: — 

November the 21 day 1694 it is agreed and voted at a legal town meeting 
that mr Simon Athern Thomas Look John Edy Joseph daggit & peter 
Robinson are Chosen a Commity for the Town of tisbury for to draw up 
a petition to the general assembly for an Easment of their tax and for 
an addition of Lands unsetled to their township ^ 

In opposition to this, when the petition was given a hear- 
ing before the committee of the General Court in the following 
March (1694-5), Mayhew appeared and argued that Tisbury 
was not overtaxed, and that her lands WTre undervalued. 
Athearn answered this both before the council and the com- 
mittees, and in writing in a petition drawn up for the con- 
sideration of the General Court. By this time Phips had been 
recalled to London for unsatisfactory conduct, similar to that 
which we have already seen, and the document was addressed 
to the deputy governor.^ From a perusal of the document, 
it will be seen that the manorial system of land tenure was 
at the bottom of the controversy about the inequality of the 
tax rates. Aside from the objections to the manorial system 
as a discredited institution, there arose an intensely practical 
objection to its existence, as developed under the management 
of the surviving lord of the manor. 

This province had laid certain general levies upon the 
towns for the support of the troops and other expenses grow- 
ing out of the various expeditions against the French and 
Indians, and these taxes were based upon the valuations of 
lands. The lands in the manor being held by the lord and 
rented out, the basis of valuation was made upon the rentals 
produced, and as the greater part of these lands were leased 
to the members of the Mayhew family, the rents were nominal, 
or made so purposely, to depress the valuation for the as- 
, sessors. It can readily be seen how this would work an in- 
justice, especially where the judicial machinery remained 
in the hands of the men who were perpetrating the scheme. 
The following is the literal text of the petition presented by 
Athearn : — 

To the honerable Lentnt Governor & Council & Represenaties 

assembled in Generall Court in Boston the 12 day of March 1694-5. 

Your most humble petitioner, In most humble manner sheweth Being 

desired by the freeholders of Tisbury on Marthas Vineyard, To move the 

'Tisbury Records, p. 26. 

^The occupant of the position at this time was WilUam Stoughton. 

200 



The Island under Puritan Control 

consideration of theire most humble petition &c. And having much 
debated the matter, before the honored Comitty, about the disproportion of 
the province Taxes on marthas vineyard, major mayhew saying that Tisbury 
had undervalued their Lands may be^ admier'd, seeing, that major mayhew 
knoweth himself and his Breatherin only, did produce Leasees of their 
farms Lett for about forty or fifty shillings by the year, of the which honest 
Renters would give above Four times the value for by the year. To con- 
sider that major mayhew his breatherin and kindred say their lands and 
Estates is only in Edgertown & Chilmark or precincts, where those farms 
was so let by Lease, one Brother to another & from the uncle to the Cousen 
& from the cousen to the uncle. At length major penn Townsin made 
sum Eaquell proposals, for the better satisfiing of the Inhabitants for the 
futor &c. 

And your humble supplicant prayeth the honnered house to pass an 
Act, That There shall be six assessors Chosen, that is, two of Each Town 
on marthas vineyard & under oath to take a Tru List of all Rateable persons 
& Estates on marthas vineyard & precincts. And to make one assessment 
on the whole observing the Law of apprisals of all Estates. And when the 
dew proportion ariseing in each town is found and devided, the major 
part agreeing. To deliver the assessment of each town or precincts to the 
constable of each town to Colect the same. And this Act to take place for 
the assessment of the province Tax to be payed in June 1695, — be a Rulle 
for Raising all province taxis on the vineyard, for the futor. And that the 
town of Tisbury bee enlarged by annexing the Lands & Inhabitants as 
the humble petition prayeth — But if the honnered House would please To 
make Tisbury & Chilmark & precincts, to be one Town or parrosh for the 
better carrying on all publique affairs there (it might be much for our peace 
And well being) for want of such an able settlement, our foundation is out of 
fram, being in peces, what Can we doe, but praying your Aid, And for your 
prosperous Government, Is the desier of your most humble suplycant.^ 

SIMON ATHEARN. 

Indeed, the matter of taxation under the new govern- 
ment was becommg a serious matter. When the island was 
under the New York jurisdiction, the taxation was practically 
limited to the quit-rents, as far as any other evidence is now 
obtainable, and the change was felt very severely by the farmers 
of Martha's Vineyard, as soon as the change occurred. Mas- 
sachusetts had undergone great expenses in the recent wars, 
and the ordinary disbursements for provincial accounts cur- 
rent were much larger than in any other colony. In a total 
levy of ;^io,ooo for New York, the two islands of Nantucket 
and Martha's Vineyard would be assessed fifty pounds, while 
by the act of June 17, 1696, the General Court of Massachu- 
setts made a tax levy of ;,^3o,ooo, and "doomed" the Vine- 
yard alone to pay ;^35o of the total amount. This was almost 

^Manuscript mutilated. 
^Mass. Arch., CXIII, iii. 

201 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

confiscation in the minds of the people here, and Matthew 
IMayhew, who that year again represented Edgartown and 
Chilmark combined, was the medium for the transmission of 
petitions for the abatement of taxes. Already they were in 
arrears for rates levied since the union with Massachusetts. 
He preferred the following petition for relief: — 

To the honoured William Stoughton, Lft Gov'r, the honoured 
Council and Assembly of the great and generall Court of the Mass- 
achusetts Bay in New England: — 

Matthew Mayhew of Marthas Vineyard representing the towns of 
Edgartown and Chilmark on the said Marthas Vineyard humbly prayeth: 

That whereas the inhabitants of the said Marthas Vineyard were by 
an act passed in this great and generall Court doomed to pay the summe 
of three hundred pounds as their proportion of a tax or assessment for 
raising the summe of thirty thousand pounds to be raised in this province 
and whereas the inhabitants of said Island Marthas Vineyard have prayed 
that the said summe should not be collected for divers reasons therefore 
offered: and whereas they humbly conceive that by reason of said doom 
they have been estimated as more of estate lyeable to bear the charge of 
the province then had their Estates been truly known would have been of 
them demanded: — Therefore said Matthew Mayhev/ in behalf of said Is- 
land prayeth that an act of this great and generall Court the summe of 
three hundred pounds be remitted and they shall more chearfully pay the 
severall summes now due demanded of them: all which your petitioner 
humbly laying before this great and generall Court humbly prayeth for 
and shall ever pray &c. 

Your honours humble supplicant 

MATTHEW MAYHEW 

June 17th, 1696 

In the House of Representatives: 

Read: — Voted in answer to abovesaid petition that — 

Marthas Vineyard be abated out of their proportion 
Edgartown 65-0 of the ;,^3o,ooo Tax: all their former part of s'd Tax 
Chilmark 42-10 with as much of the last part as will amount to two 
Tisbury 42-10 hundred pounds (their whole porportion being three 

hundred and fifty pound). 
Read in Council June 17, 1696 and voted concurrance.^ 

This total amount of £sS^ had been assessed on the 
three towns between Sept. 14, 1694, and June 17, 1696, of 
which amount Edgartown was rated for £iS3, Tisbury and 
Chilmark, each £g8. At the date mentioned in the petition, 
Edgartown was in arrears £80, Tisbury ;^6o, and Chilmark 
£31; and in the equalization of the arrearages Tisbury was 

^Mass. Archives, XIII, 137. 
202 



The Island under Puritan Control 

favored by the committee, at the expense of the Major's town, 
and Simon Athearn could score a victory over his ancient 
enemy/ But it was not a satisfactory situation for either side, 
as the taxes were so much in excess of what they had previously 
paid, that it touched the pockets as the well as sentiments 
of the freeholders. Nantucket felt it equally burdensome, 
and in September of the same year, its representative, James 
Cofhn, joined with Matthew May hew in a petition for an 
abatement of their entire allotment in the "thirty thousand 
pound tax" and asked, in addition, an appropriation of fifty 
pounds each for military purposes in erecting fortifications, 
because of their exposed position on the coast, and their con- 
stant necessities of maintaining defensive operations and 
guards against the armed vessels of the French. The petition 
was granted by the General Court, the abatement allowed, and 
the sum asked for to be used in military works under the super- 
vision of the commander of the forces.' During the three 
years which followed before the close of the 17th century, 
nothing of political note occurred worthy of mention. 

Although maintaining an attitude of superficial allegiance 
to the Massachusetts jurisdiction, Matthew Mayhew privately 
wished for the return of the "good old times," when there was 
no one to supervise his authority with effectiveness, when 
lordships were to be had for the asking, and six barrells of 
fish paid their rates, if he could remember to send a sloop 
with them "to be delivered at the Bridge" in Manhattan, 
once a year. When the Major thought of these things his 
gorge rose within him, and not being a man hitherto sub- 
jected to restraint in things temporal or spiritual, his choler 
occasionally found vent in vigorous language. On one such 
time, according to the testimony of Joseph Marion, when 
conversation turned upon the provincial councillors of Massa- 
chusetts, the Major broke forth, and said "if they did not 
Repent of their unjust actions & extortions, their gray beards 
would never go to their graves in peace & said they all de- 
served to be kickt into the dock." Marion tried to calm the 
excited chief justice, and "reproved him" for his uncivil 
words. "Com, Com, Major," he said, "youl run into your 
old strain, a dun with this discorc." But the Major was not 

' In a letter to the Speaker of the House, dated June 6, 1697, Mayhew lost his 
temper at the charges of Athearn that there was inequality of assessment in favor of 
Edgartown, and offered " to pay back to them their whole assessment " out of his own 
pocket if it should be so decided by the House. (Mass. Arch. LI 69). 

^Mass. Archives, LXX, 298. 

203 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

to be restrained. "The Government of this Country" he 
continued, "is the worst government in the world," and in 
his rage poured out such a torrent of contemptuous opinions 
that his Hstener could not "remember the particular words 
that he then spake, yet at other times he hath heard him 
sayd Mayhew speak words to the same effect or worse re- 
ferring to his Ma'tis Government in this Province." It was 
not a day when such opinions could be uttered with impunity, 
and the irate head of the house of Mayhew and Lord of the 
Manor of Tisbury had to answer for this "freedom of speech." 
He probably forgot that he was no longer in command of the 
island kingdom, and could not do and say what he pleased. 

"That in the captain's but a choleric word, 
Which in the soldier is flat blasphemy." 



204 



Political History of the Vineyard, 1 700-1 900 

CHAPTER XVIIL 

Political History of the Vineyard, i 700-1900 

By the opening of the i8th century, the poHtical relations 
of the island to its new foster mother had become settled, 
and the proprietary family gradually "came back to its own" 
in the official control of its destinies. The beginning of this 
century also marked the development of the Vineyard in 
material wealth and increase of population. It had come to 
be known as a part of Massachusetts now, and residents of 
the "Bay" colony were more ready to seek homes here than 
when it was under the distant jurisdiction of New York. 
The deaths of Major Matthew Mayhew, in 1710, and of 
Simon Athearn, in 171 5, removed from the arena of personal 
and political strife the two great contestants for the mastery 
of the island, and henceforth there was internal peace. There 
was no one to take up the fallen lance so long held by Athearn, 
and the sons and grandsons of the Major had none of his 
choleric temperament or domineering methods. However, 
they were none the less successful in obtaining the lucrative 
and influential offices, as in 1718, for example, two of them 
were appointed at one time justices of the Superior Court 
and Court of Probate. 

NEW YORK AGAIN ASSERTS HER CLAIMS. 

A generation had grown up since the transfer of the is- 
land from the jurisdiction of the province of New York, and 
doubtless most of the residents of the Vineyard supposed that 
province had abandoned all pretensions to material interests 
on the island. They were suddenly awakened one day in 
the year 1723, by a demand for the payment of the ancient 
quit-rents due under the charters of 1671, granted by Love- 
lace. That this was a startling demand can be readily under- 
stood, and served as a reminder to the older generation of the 
times when they used to send a few barrels of fish to New 
York as tribute to the Duke's government — when they hap- 
pened to remember it. The following documents were served 
upon the officials of the Vineyard : — 

205 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

Att a Council held att Fort Georges in New York 
April the 19th, 1723. 
Present: his Excelency William Burnit, Esqr. 
Coll: Beekman Mr. Harison 

Mr. Vandam Mr. Alexander 

Mr. Barberie 

Rip Vandam Esq'r Chairman of the Committee to whom was Refered 
the memorial of Archibald Kennedy Esq'e Receiver Gen" of this Province 
Setting forth that the owners or tenants in possession of the Severall Islands 
belonging to this government in the Sound and to the Eastward of said 
Island have for a long time delaid to pay the Quitt Rents reserved in their 
Pattents and that he is Loath to Commence actions against them for the 
Same without giving them Solem notis to pay them in, and praying an order 
of this board to pay unto him their Quitt Rents that thereby they might save 
themselves from Legal prosecutions Being Commenced against them for 
the same, humbly reported to his Excellancy and this bord that an order 
be granted according to the desire thereof: 

ORDERED that notis to the owners and tenants of the several Islands 
in memorial mentioned to pay in their Quitt Rents to the said Receiver 
Gen" without further delay and that upon their neglect the said Receiver 
Gen" will proceed against them by due course of Law for the Recovery of 
the same which will be to them no small charge: and that the Clark of the 
Council or his deputy do prepare Circular Letters to be sent to them. 

By order of his Excelancy in Councill: 

J. BOBINOR d.c. Council.' 

Copies of this circular letter reached the hands of Paine 
Mayhew in June of this year, and the effect was most dis- 
turbing to the land-owners of the island, who had supposed 
that the transfer of the sovereignty, in 1692, from New York 
to Massachusetts had quieted all other claims dependent upon 
acknowledgments of lordships. He at once communicated 
the circular to the Massachusetts authorities, with the follow- 
ing letter explanatory of the matter : — 

May itt please your hon'rs 

Yesterday came to my hand a pacquite of papers dyrected: On his 
Maj's Service Loyal Inhabitants of Martins Vineyard holding Lands of 
the Crown under the Government of New York: — and when I had opened 
the papers I found a Letter as herein enclosed and three other papers of 
the same tenure and date as the copy enclosed will show &c: — and least it 
should be Construed some way or other to asert the affaires of the present 
Constitution of government that we are now under I thought proper to 

^Mass. Archives, IV, 88. It is difficult to understand how the New York 
authorities fell into this technical error. Probably some one unfamiliar with the legal 
history of the Province had instituted these proceedings. 

206 



Political History of the Vineyard, 1 700-1 900 

send them to y'r hon'rs and if anything of that nature should be thought 
I pray your hon'rs advice in the affaire. 

And subscribe your hon'rs 

most humble servant 

PAIN MAYHEW 
Marthas vineyard 
June the loth, 1723. 

post: we were formerly under New York Government and hold our grants 
from thence under Certain Quit Rents but have paid none since we were 
under the Massachusetts Government/ 

What answer the Massachusetts authorities made to May- 
hew is not known, but it may be surmised that he was coun- 
selled to take no further notice of the demands, as they were 
in the nature of pretensions to jurisdiction, which had passed 
from New York thirty years ago. But notices of this kind 
act as clouds upon titles, and the freeholders of Edgartown, 
who were always "loyal" to the New York authorities, while 
they were under that jurisdiction, could not rest content to 
let the matter go by default, so, after some months, a meeting 
was held, Jan. 17, 1723-4, by those land-owners of the town 
who felt that some settlement of these claims should be made. 
Accordingly, they passed the following vote : — 

Ajourned to the i8th Voted and Chose John Butler Jr. Agent to go to 
New York, in order to represent them in the affair concerning the quit 
rents as demanded by the government of said New York, as by the letters 
lately received with reference thereto. And further to act and do all things 
necessary in said affair. 

And futher Voted the said John Butler shall have five Shillings a day, 
for every day he shall expend in said affair: and to pay him for all the 
copies that he shall bring from off the Records at said York.^ 

JOHN BUTLER ARRESTED IN NEW YORK. 

In pursuance of their plan, John Butler, Junior, of Edgar- 
town, repaired to New York to have a conference with the 
authorities there over the situation, and taking advantage of 
his presence in their jurisdiction, they arrested him, as a 
preliminary to legal proceedings, looking to the recovery of 
sundry barrels of "merchantable codfish," perhaps a hundred 
in the total. It is not entirely understood, whether the New 
York officials merely wanted the value of the "acknowledg- 
ment," or used it as a technical method of reasserting their 

'Mass. Archives, IV, 89. 
^Edgartown Records, I, 130. 

207 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

claims to jurisdiction over the Vineyard, which theyjnever 
had formally waived, as we have seen. William Backman,"a 
mariner of New York, has left us a statement of the expe- 
riences of Butler, in his diplomatic mission to that city. He 
states that Butler was "as an agent There for the Proprietary 
of Edgar Town .... In order to settle and Adjust the Quitt 
Rents .... and s'd Butler being Remanded into Custody 
and kept by an officer under Command on account of the 
Rents & services due from s'd Edgar Town to the Govern- 
ment of New York." He further stated that Butler gave a 
bond to Mr. Archibald Kennedy, Receiver General of New 
York, and that he "had good reason to Judge that s'd Butler 
was in a greate manner compelled to do it." How long John 
Butler remained "in durance vile" is not known, but it is 
probable that as all the facts were better known by the New 
York authorities and the futility of their continued preten- 
sions to Massachusetts territory was impressed upon them, 
they gave up the pursuit of these arrears of rentals and ac- 
knowledgments, and ever after nursed their grievances in 
silence. It is stated in a contemporary history "that some 
of the Freeholders of those Islands, (Nantucket, INIarthas 
Vineyard and Elizabeth Islands), when occasionally in New 
York, were arrested for the arrears of the general Quit-Rents 
of these Islands," but beyond the occasion just cited the author 
has not found the record of any other arrest for the purposes 
stated.^ 

MICAJAH MAYHEW ASSERTS HIS LORDSHIP. 

But this was not the final flicker of the old order of things. 
The ghosts of the "quit rents" and "acknowledgments" were 
followed by an equally anachronistic pretension — the at- 
tempted revival of the ancient manorial privileges, as ap- 
pertaining to the eldest line of descent from the first Lord of 
the Manor of Martha's Vineyard. This was represented in 
the person of Micajah Mayhew of Edgartown, the eldest 
grandson of Major Matthew, who began to assert his "Lord- 
ship" as early as 1730, and proceeded to lease out lands and 
grant "rights" over that already in possession, as Lord of 
the Manor of Martha's Vineyard.^ Thus no sooner were the 
people recovered from the sight of the quit-rent ghost than 

'Douglass, Sximmary, II, 236. 
'Deeds, V, 121. 

208 



Political History of the Vineyard, 1 700-1 900. 

their dreams were troubled by spectres of Lords of the Manor, 
in jack boots and doublets, straddling their ridge poles and 
haunting their broad acres. As an example of the effect this 
situation had upon tenures and the fee of property, a clause 
from a deed of the period may testify. It is a warranty deed 
in which the grantor undertakes to defend the title "from 
all & every excepting only what claim any of the family of 
the Mayhews by Surname may Challenge."^ In Chilmark, 
where this family was numerically strong and influential and 
held to the traditions of their ancestral rights, there was ac- 
quiescence in these pretensions, and the custom of paying 
quit-rents was continued as late as 1732 by one of the family 
to the Lord of the Manor of Tisbury.^ These acknowledg- 
ments were trifling in value, a lamb, an ear of corn, a peck 
of wheat, and the like annually, but aside from its annoyance 
to the actual owners, it was effecting a perpetuation of a legal 
and social solecism, repugnant to the sentiments of freemen 
and democrats. For twenty years, however, this spectacle 
was enacted by Micajah Mayhew, until in 1750 the men of 
Tisbury, tired of the mummery, revolted and asserted their 
independence of manorial and other lords in the following 
decisive language : — 

And for as much as Severall Persons have of Late assumed to Sett 
up themselves as Lord Propriators in Opposition to the Ancient settled 
constitution and Continued Practice in said Town to the Great Disturbance 
and Disquietment of sd Town in their Ancient Peacable order: 

Now therefore we the subscribers hereunto the Present Propriators 
and Freeholders of all the Common & undivided Lands & Meadows Lying 
within the Bounds of sd Tisbury as Derived from the ancient Inhabitants 
being settled in sixteen Shares, are Determined to Assert Maintain uphold 
and Pursue the settled order Rights & Priviledges to us belonging against 
all the usurpers Pretenders underminers of the said settled order and Do 
now Covenant agree & Ingage to and with Each other for the future Even 
from & ever after the Date of these Presents to stand by Assist & uphold 
Each other in the cost & charges that shall arise in or aboat their Rights 
of Propriaty in sd Commons or undivided Lands or Meadows as aforesaid 
According to Each Propriators Interest in all causes brought or that may 
be brought for or against them by any Person or Persons whatsoever Pre- 
tending to hold any of the sd Lands or meadows in any other way.^ 

This was subscribed by the shareholders representing 
the several shares of the original. At a later meeting they 

^Manter to Waldron, March 5, 1735. Deeds, VI, 81. 

nUd., VI, 56. 

'Tisbury Records, 132. Meeting was held April 3, 1751. 

209 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

voted to employ "one or more Attorney or Attorneys" to act 
with Jabez Athearn in the maintenance of their legal rights. 
It is believed that Experience Mayhew also made some pre- 
tensions to Lordship privileges over the Quansoo region 
where he lived, as representing the line of John, its first pro- 
prietor, of which a hint is found in the same town's proceed- 
ings.^ 

Nothing further came of it. Experience died in 1758, 
and two years later Micajah, the last of the Lords of the Manor, 
was laid to rest with his ancient pretensions. 

THE STALIP ACT. 

The passage of the Stamp Act by Parliament in 1765, 
by which the colonists were required to use stamps on all 
legal documents and newspapers, ranging in value froln a 
half-penny to ten pounds, aroused the people to a practically 
unanimous resistance, and thus precipitated the campaign 
against "taxation without representation," which had its 
final arbitrament by the sword in the Revolutionary struggle. 
Although Parliament repealed this obnoxious statute the next 
year, yet it was followed bv another in 1767, imposing duties 
on glass, paper, paints, and tea, the revenue from which was 
to pay for the billeting of the king's troops in the country. 
The people were in no better temper to accept this amended 
form of taxation than before, and Samuel Adams accurately 
expressed the sentiments of the colonists when he bound him- 
self with others to "eat nothing, drink nothing, wear nothing" 
imported from England. 

Parliament again receded from its position, and removed 
the duties from every article except tea, which was placed at 
a nominal rate, not for the sake of revenue, but to maintain 
the right of Parliament to impose taxes on the colonies. 

News having reached Boston that two regiments were 
on their way from Halifax for that city, and an officer having 
been sent by General Gage from New York to provide quar- 
ters for these troops, a town meeting was held Sept. 12, 
and Governor Bernard was urgently asked to summon a new 
General Court. Acting under instructions, the governor re- 
fused. It was thereupon proposed to hold a convention in 
Boston — "in consequence of prevailing apprehensions of a 
war with France" — so they phrased the reason of calling the 

'Tisbury Records, 130. Under date of 1749. 
210 



Political History of the Vineyard, 1 700-1 900. 

convention, and the meeting advised, significantly enough, 
all persons to provide themselves with firearms at the earliest 
moment, and to observe a day of fasting and prayer. Dele- 
gates from more than a hundred towns met accordingly on 
the 2 2d of September, and petitioned the governor to sum- 
mon a General Court. Bernard refused peremptorily, and 
besides, denounced their meeting as treasonable. Disclaiming 
all pretensions to political authority, the convention, after a 
four days' session, agreed upon a petition to the king, and 
sent a letter to the province agent in England, to defend 
themselves against the charge of a rebellious spirit. "Such," 
says a historical writer, "was the first of those popular con- 
ventions, destined within a few years to assume the whole 
political authority of the colonies."* Chilmark was the only 
town on the island to send a delegate to this, the first con- 
vention of the people of the Commonwealth. 

The following vote was passed at a town meeting held 
Sept. 27, 1768: — 

"Voted that Mr. Joseph Mayhew be the Person to join with the Con- 
vention now Seting in Boston in order that such measures may be Consulted 
and advised as his majestyes Service and the Peace and Safety of his Sub- 
jects in this Province may require." 

This was the first step in the dissolution of the bonds 
that fastened the colonies to the home government. 



LATER HISTQRY. 

The political and general history of the Vineyard as a 

whole, during the subsequent years, merit not much space 

and but little reference to details. The special events of the 

French and Indian wars, the Revolution and other military 

matters, will be dealt with in a separate section. Henceforth, 

its relations with Massachusetts were no different from that 

' of any other integral part of the Commonwealth, and the 

i legislation for it as a whole was of the ordinary character 

L_found in the rest of the laws passed by the General Court. 

It covers mainly enactments concerning the Indians, taxes, 

excise, judicial arrangements, and the like, which will be 

treated under their respective subjects. In a political sense 

" it has no special annals of its own as distinct unto itself. At 

the adoption of the Federal Constitution in 1788, the county 

^Bancroft, "History of the United States," II, 97. 

211 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

had two delegates to the convention. In the poHtical divisions 
of the state, the island was classed with Nantucket and Barn- 
stable, under the State Constitution of 1780, forming one 
senatorial district. This situation has existed ever since, 
and in the one hundred and twenty years of the maintenance 
of the Union, the Vineyard has furnished the senator in but 
twenty-eight of them, or less than one quarter of the time. 
The following is a list of the senators and other general offi- 
cers who have represented the island in its political affairs 
from 1780 to 1900: — 

SENATORS. 

The following named persons have served this county in 
the State Senate for the district of which this island is a part, 
since 1 780 : — 



1784 


Beriah Norton, 


(E) 


1848 


Thomas Bradley, (T) 


i787-8-( 


) Matthew Mayhew 


(C) 


1852 


Daniel Fisher, (E) 


1793-4 


William Jernegan, 


(E) 


1853 


Benjamin Manter, (C) 


1799 


Benjamin Allen, 


(T) 


1855 


Ivory H. Lucas. (E) 


1801 


Benjamin Allen, 


(T) 


1859-60 


Ichabod N. Luce, (E) 


1822 


Jethro Daggett, 


(E) 


1871-2 


Charles Bradley, (T) 


1836 


Leavitt Thaxter, 


(E) 


1884-5-6 


Howes Norris, (C.C.) 


1841-2 


Thomas Bradley, 


(T) 


1895-6-7-^ 


) William A. Morse, (T) 


1847 


Leavitt Thaxter, 


(E) 







COUNCILLORS. 

The following named persons have served this county as 
members of the governor's council since 1780: — 
1839 Leavitt Thaxter, (E) 

1855-6 Daniel Davis, (E) 

1863-4 Samuel Osborne, Jr., (E) 

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTORS. 

The following named persons have been elected as presi- 
dential electors since the adoption of the Constitution : — 
1804 John Davis, (T) 

1858 John Vincent, (E) 

1868 Richard L. Pease. (E) 

CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTIONS. 

Cornelius Dunham of Tisbury and William Mayhew of 
Edgartown represented this County in the convention of 1 788. 

Shubael Dunham of Tisbury and Thomas Cooke, Jr., of 
Edgartown represented this County in the convention of 1820. 

Alfred Norton of Tisbury, Horatio Warren Tilton of 
Chilmark and Jeremiah Pease, Jr., of Edgartown represented 
this County in the convention of 1853. 

212 



The Missionary Mayhews 



CHAPTER XIX. 

The Missionary Mayhews. 

thomas mayhew, jr. 

The first attempt to Christianize the natives of New 
England took place on Martha's Vineyard, three years before 
the famous "Apostle" Eliot began his work on the main land. 
It would be perhaps more interesting, if we could say that 
this initial essay of the younger Mayhew was undertaken with 
any deliberate purpose; or that the emigration to the island 
by the elder Mayhew from the settled portion of the country, 
had in it any ulterior designs of evangelistic work. The rela- 
tions with the natives, on the part of the son, were undoubt- 
edly of a circumstantial nature, and the growth of his interest 
in their religious development of an unpremeditated kind. 
This need not minimize his credit in the least, as it cannot 
lessen our admiration for the fine character of the labor he 
performed in an unknown field. The beginning of his interest 
in this sphere of usefulness is thus related by one who knew 
the subject thoroughly, from original investigation, only a 
short time after the events narrated, and his narrative will be 
quoted at length : — 

His English Flock being then but small, the Sphere was not large 
enough for so bright a Star to move in. With great Compassion he beheld 
the wretched Natives, who then were several thousands on those Islands, 
perishing in utter Ignorance of the true god, and eternal Life, labouring 
under strange Delusions, Inchantments, and panick Fears of Devils, whom 
they most passionately worshipped. 

He first endeavours to get acquainted with them, and then earnestly 
applies himself to learn their Language. He treats them in a condescend- 
ing and friendly manner. He denys himself, and does his utmost to ob- 
ligue and help them. He takes all Occasions to insinuate and show the 
sincere and tender Love and Goodwill he bare them; and as he grows 
in their Acquaintance and Affection, he proceeds to express his great Con- 
cern and Pity for their immortal Souls. He tells them of their deplorable 
Condition under the Power of malicious Devils, who not only kept them 
in Ignorance of those earthly good things, which might render their Lives 
in this World much more comfortable, but of those also which might 
bring them to eternal Happiness in the World to come; what a kind and 
mighty God the English served, and how the Indians might happily come 
into his Favour and Protection. 

The first Indian that embraced the Motion of forsaking their false 
Gods, and adoring the true one, was Hiacoomes, which was in the Year 

213 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

1643; an Account of whom we therefore have in the first of the foregoing 
Examples, This Indian living near the English Settlement, quickly grew 
into an Acquaintance wuth them. And being a Man of a sober, thought- 
ful, and ingenuous Spirit, he not only visited their Houses, but also their 
publick and religious Meetings; at which time Mr. Mayhew took par- 
ticular Notice of him, discoursed often with him, invited him to his House 
every Lord's-day at Evening, gave him a clear Account of the Nature, 
Reasonableness, and Importance of the Christian Faith, and quickly 
brought him to a firm and resolute Adherence to it. 

Mr. Mayhew having gained Hiacoomes, he first imploys him as a 
faithful Instrument to prepare his Way to the rest of the Natives, in- 
structing him more and more in this new Religion, showing him how to 
recommend it to them, and answer all their Arguments and Objections 
against it. And then in 1644, he proceeds to visit and discourse them 
himself, carrying a greater and more irresistible Light and Evidence with 
him. And whereas at first he could not hope to be heard in publick, he 
therefore begins to instruct them in a more private way, sometimes going 
to the Houses of those he esteemed most rational and well qualified, and 
at other times treating with particular Persons.^ 

And as Mr. Mayhew endeavoured the Good of those Heathens, by 
discoursing with as many as were willing to have any Conference with him 
so with Hiacoomes in particular, whom he from time to time directed to 
communicate the Knowledge received to those that Mr. Mayhew could not 
so easily meet with. And thus they united their Counsels, and wrought 
together, and by the Blessing of GOD soon gained som others. 

But that which especially favoured the Progress of Religion among 
them, was a universal Sickness, wherewith they were visited the following 
Year;^ (1645) wherein it was observed by the Heathen Indians themselves, 
that those who hearkene to Mr. Mayhew's pious Instructions did not 
taste so deeply of it, and Hiacoomes and his Family in a manner nothing 
at all. This put the Natives who lived within six Miles of the English, 
upon serious Consideration about this Matter, being much affected, that 
he who had professed the Christian Religion, and had thereby exposed 
himself to much Reproach and Trouble, should receive more Blessings 
than they: where upon Myoxeo the chief Man of that Place, and Towan- 
quatick the Sagamore, (a sovereign Prince), with many others sent for 
Hiacoomes to tell them what he knew of the God which the English wor- 
shipped. 

At this very Meeting, which was in 1646, Myoxeo was happily en- 
lightened, and turned to chuse and acknowledge this God for his own; 
and Towanquatick soon after, encouraged by some others, desired Mr. 
Mayhew to give them a publick Meeting, to make known to them the 
Word of GOD in their own Tongue: and, among other Incitements, 
addressed him thus, — You shall be to us as one that stands by a running 
River, filling many Vessels; even so shall you fill us with everlasting Knowl- 
edge. So Mr. Mayhew undertook to give them a Meeting once a Month; 

"'Some of them cotild not endure the light he brought;" wrote Mayhew, while 
"some were more attentive to hear and more ready to follow the truth." (Whitfield, 
♦'Light Appearing," p. 5.) 

^Mayhew called it "a very strange disease," and "laid the cause of all their wants, 
sickness, and death upon their departing from their old heathenish ways." (Ibid., p. 4.) 

214 



The Missionary Mayhews 

but as soon as the first Exercise was over, they desired it oftener than 
he well could attend: however, once a Fortnight was the settled Course; 
and this was the first publick Audience among them, so from thence both 
Mr. Mayhew on the Week-days Lecture, and Hiacoomes on the Sabbaths, 
were constantly heard in publick as long as they lived/ 

A letter from the young missionary, the first which he 
wrote upon the subject which has been preserved, will repay 
perusal in full, to show how he expressed himself on the pro- 
gress and methods at this time. It was written in the late 
fall of 1647, three years after the conversion of Hiacoomes: — 

Sir: The encouragements I have met withall touching the Indians 
conversion, next unto God's glory, and his gracious promises, was the 
notable reason, judgment, and capacitie that God hath given unto many of 
them, as also their zealous enquiry after true happi- 
ness, together with the knowledge I had of their J^!:^^5;^''!''ifi!.'; 
r • 1 11 -1 1 • 1 1 1 J irom UapawacK 

tongue, besides several! providences which had ad- Novem. 18 1647. 

vantaged my progresse therein, as for instance: — 

1. There was one lesogat, about 60 years of age, who was sick of a 
consuming disease, inasmuch as the Indian Paw- 

wawes, gave him over for a dead man : — Upon gm-^ ^s cure by 
which resolution of all the Pawwawees in the Island, devillish sorcery and 
the sick distressed Heathen upon a Lord's day came to whom the devil 
unto mee, (the rest of the English being present), to appears sometimes, 
desire me to pray unto God for him: And when I 

had, by reasoning with him, convinced him of the weaknesse and wicked- 
nesse of the Pawwawees power; and that if health were to be found, it 
must be had from him that gave life and health and all things; I recom- 
mended this case unto the Lord, whereof he rejoyced, gave me thanks, 
and he speedily recovered unto his former strength. 

2. In this present year, 1647, the eldest sonne of one Pakapanessue, 
a great Sagamore of the Island, being very sick, took occasion to send for 
me to come unto him: and when I came unto him, I found him not more 
weak in body, than strong in earnest desire that I should pray unto God 
for him; so I instructed him and prayed for him: And when I had ended, 
of his own accord he spake these words: — Taubot mannit null quant 
Covinj^ viz: I thank thee God, — I am heavy to sleep; and so I left hold- 
ing forth good affections: — But shortly after he was changed altogether, 
and contrary to the perswasion of other Indians, of severall Townes, 
sought unto witches. The Heathen seeing this, they forsook the wigwam,^ 
saying. We leave the house for the Devill, and them that would tarry; 
this newse being brought to me, I much marvailled at, 

yet sent him this message, viz. Tell Saul, (for the sick 

man was by the English so called,) that when I was with '^luh^^'^lf"^ ^° 

him, I thought, as I then told him, that be would live, 

because he sought for life unto the living God, where if 

any where it was to be found; but tell him now, that I think he will dye. 

I also added the example of Ahaziah, who because he had the knowledge 

'Rev. Thomas Prince, in " Indian Converts," 280-292. 

^The last word is a misprint for koneu, meaning, he sleeps. The letter was printed 
in London, and the spelling of Algonguian words was not an art at that time. 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

of the great God, and sought the inferiour God, God was angry with him, 
and killed with him: And so for that this Saul was informed of the true 
God, and is fallen from him to the earthen gods here below; that God 
will kill him also; and so it shortly came to passe. 

3. Not long after a Sagamore,^ called Towanquattick, had his eldest 
Sonne whose name is Sachachanhno, very sick of a Feaver; this young 
man sent for to come unto him, and when I came his father 
*A Prince or ^^^ himself desired me to pray for him, the which I did in 
ruler amongst their owne language, and promised to come againe unto him 
them. shortly if he mended not, and use some other means also for 

his recovery; when I came again unto him, I found him very 
ill, asked him (together with his friends) whether they were willing I 
should let him blood? acquainting them that we used so to do in such 
cases. After some consideration, they consented thereto, notwithstanding 
the Pawaws had told them before, that he should dye, because he sought 
not unto them; so I bound his arme, and with my Pen-knife let him blood, 
he bled freely, but was exceeding faint, which made the Heathen very sad, 
but in a short time, he began to be very cheerfull, whereat they much 
rejoyced, &c. So I left them, and it pleased the Lord the man was in a 
short time after very well. 

In these Providences, the Lord has manifested both mercy and judg- 
ment, and it is, that he may raise up the Tabernacle of David, that is 
fallen, and close up the breaches thereof, and raise up its ruines, and 
build it as in days of old, that they may preserve the covenant of Edom, 
and all of the Heathen, which are called by name, saith the Lord that 
doeth this. 

But I pray you take notice of a speech of Towanquattick, (being the 
father of the young man recovered), who lamented the losse of his knowl- 
ege, said unto me,2 That a long time agon, they had wise men, 
'an Indian "^hich in a grave manner taught the people knowlege, but they 
Speech wor- are dead, and their wisdome is buried with them: and now men 
thy of con- lead a giddy life in ignorance, till they are white headed, and 
siaeration. though ripe in years, yet they go without wisdome unto their 
graves. He also told me that he wondered the English could 
be almost thirty years in the Country, and the Indians fools still, but he 
hoped the time of knowledge was now to come; wherefore himself, with 
others desired me to give them an Indian meeting, to make known the 
word of God unto them in their own tongue. And when he came to me 
to accomplish his desire thereabouts, he told me I should be to them, as one 
that stands by a running River, filling many vessels;^ even so 
' The better should I fill them with everlasting knowledge. So I undertook 
sort of them to give them a meeting once a moneth; but as soon as the 
^^^h 1 u ^^"^^ exercise was ended, they desired it oftener than I could 

pression af- ^'^^^ attend, but once a fortnight is our settled course. This 
feet in g to I present to your consideration, entreating you to present us 
speak Par- unto the Lord for wisdome to preach unto the Heathen the 
^^^^' unsearchable riches of Christ, so that the root of lesse stand- 

ing for an Ensigne of the people, the Gentiles may seek unto 
it, and his rest shall be glorious. Amen. 

Yours in the best Bond, Tho: Mayhew, junior. 

Great Harbour on the Vineyard 18 of the 9, 1647.^ 

'Glorious Progress of the Gospel, etc., London, 1649. 
216 



The Missionary Mayhews 

These tactics employed by the young missionary were 
very clever in their conception, and successful in their execu- 
tion. He was pitting his skill in medicine against the crude 
methods of the Pawwaws, and he could combine the religious 
with the scientific to the ^advantage of his new theology. By 
his own admission he s4ved one of the sick men by blood- 
letting, while the other who died was given up because he had 
not forsaken completely the Pawwaws. It was a case where 
Mayhew could win eitheY way, but we will not be too critical 
of his methods, for he was trying a new field, never cultivated 
before, and it was, perhaps, allowable for him to resort to a 
little subterfuge to arouse his subjects to the idea that these 
''medicine men" were but little better than sorcerers, without 
common knowledge of the diseases they professed to treat. 
It was doubtless the quickest way to gain a standing amongst 
them, for the curing of disease w^as the most revered of quali- 
ties in their Pawwaws. Upon this point the author of the 
account of the beginnings of the missions, which has been 
quoted already, says : — 

However, Mr. Mayhew here met with three very great Obstacles: for, 
(i) Many strongly stood for their own Meetings, Ways, and Customs, as 
being in their account more advantageous and agreeable than ours, wherein 
they have nothing but talking and praying, and this in a manner too still 
and sober for them. (2). Others alledged that the Sagamores were gen- 
erally against the new Way. But the (3.) and greatest of all was, how 
they should come off from the Pawaws. This was the strongest Cord 
that bound them; for the Pawaws, by their diabolical Sorceries, kept 
them in the most slavish Fear and Subjection to them 

The Sagamore Towanquatick was exceeding malign 'd by them, and 
in 1647 his Life was villanously attempted for his favouring the Christian 
Religion: but his great Deliverance, with a due Reflection on the Villany 
the rather confirmed him in it, and inflamed him with the more active 
Zeal to espouse and assert it; and the Meeting went on to the Joy of 
some Indians, and the Envy of the rest, who derided and scoffed at those 
who attended the Lecture, and blasphemed the God whom they worshipped, 
which very much damped the Spirits of some for a time in his Ways, and 
hindered others from looking towards them. But Towanquatick and Hia- 
coomes were inspired with a wonderful Courage and Constancy: And in 
the following Year (1647) had a general Meeting of all that were inclined 
for Christianity to confirm and assist one another in their abiding by it. 

This Assembly was held in Mr. Mayhew''s Presence, and therein he 
tells us, that twelve of the young Men went and took Sacochanimo, Towan- 
qnatick's eldest Son, by the Hand, telling him, They loved him, and would 
go with him in GOD's Way; and the elder Men encouraged them, and 
deseired them never to forget these Promises. And so after they had eaten, 
and sang part of a Psalm in their own Language, and Mr. Mayhew had 

217 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

prayed, they returned home with Expressions of great Joy and Thank- 
fulness. 

The next Year (1648) there was a greater Convention, wherein was a 
Mixt Muhitude, both of Infidel and Christian Indians, and those who were 
in doubt of Christianity; but Mr. Mayhew it seems was not now present. 
In this Assembly the dreadful Power of the Pawaws was publickly de- 
bated, many asserting their Power to hurt and kill, and alledging numerous 
Instances that were evident and undoubted among them: and then some 
asking aloud Who is there that does not fear them? others reply'd, There 
is not a Man that does not. Upon which Hiacoomes breaks forth, and 
boldly declares, that tho the Pawaws might hurt those that feared them, 
yet he believed and trusted in the GREAT GOD of Heaven and Earth, 
and therefore all the Pawaws together could do him no Harm, and he feared 
them not. At which they all exceedingly wondred, and expected some 
dreadful thing to befal him; but observing he remained unhurt, they 
began to esteem him happy in being delivered from their terrible Power. 
Several of the Assembly declared they now believed in the same God too, 
and would be afraid of the Pawaws no more: and desired Hiacoomes 
to tell them what this GREAT GOD would have them to do, and what 
were the things that offended him; he immediately fell to Preaching and 
Prayer, and by a rare and happy Invention he readily discovered and 
mentioned forty five or fifty sorts of Sins committed among them, and as 
many contrary Duties neglected; which so amazed them and touched their 
Consciences, that at the End of the Meeting there were twenty two Indians 
who resolved against those Evils, and to walk with GOD, and attend his 
Word, among whom was Momonequem, a Son of one of the principal 
Indians, who some time after became a Preacher.^ 

Of him the missionary speaks with special interest, as 
one whose conversion was of great value to his cause. He 
was a son of Annomantooque, one of the principal Indians 
of Gay Head, but his mother was a squaw of Nunnepog and 
there dwelt Momanequem at this time. He publicly confessed 
to "about twenty of his own sins, and professed to follow the 
one God against all opposition." He stated that he was con- 
verted to the new belief by Hiacoomes, but the missionary 
thought it was "from more than a natural Principle, consid- 
ering that the Man hath been since an earnest Seeker of more 
Light, both publicly and privately; for that he also refused 
the Help of a Pawwaw who lived within two Bow-shot of his 
door, when his wife was in three Days in Travail, and waited 
patiently on God till they obtained a merciful Deliverance 
by Prayer." Momanequem became the first Indian preacher 
in Nashawakemmuck, and, in 165 1, went to Boston with 
young Mayhew, where he was interviewed by the Rev. John 
Wilson, pastor of the First Church in that town. Wilson 
describes him as "a grave and solemn Man, with whom I 

^Prince, ut supra. 
218 



The Missionary Mayhews 

had serious Discourse, Mr. Mayhew being present as Inter- 
preter between us."^ 

At this time the work was progressing slowly but surely, 
and young Mayhew was making no mistakes. As is usual in 
conditions of this sort, the number of conversions was greater 
among the women than among the men, although they were 
"not known by open entrance into Covenant as the men, but 
are now near it." wrote Mayhew of the events of the year 
1649. The Pawwaws "died hard," and continued to obstruct 
the meetings. The missionary tells of the conversion of one 
who "was sent at first about two or three months before by 
one of the greatest Pawawes upon the Island to learn and spy 
what was done at the meetings and carry him word." ^ 

" Truth from his Hps prevail'd with double sway, 
And fools who came to scoff remain'd to pray." 

The reception of these letters in England, sent out by 
Mayhew, Eliot, and others, descriptive of the novel work 
undertaken in this new field of religious endeavor, awakened 
great interest among the clergy and laity at home, and appeals 
for the support of such labors upon a definite basis were met 
by the liberal contributions of the merchants and well-to-do 
classes. At first, these contributions were individual in char- 
acter, but as the reports continued to show satisfactory results 
the patrons of the work, after a conference, decided that it 
was of such probable magnitude, considering the future, that 
it would be wiser to unite their forces into an established body 
to manage the business economically and properly, with in- 
telligent supervision. The printed tracts, already quoted, 
made known to the public the character of the work, and so 
impressed was the "Long Parliament" with the importance 
of the subject that on July 27, 1649, an ordinance was passed, 
establishing "A Corporation for the Promoting and Propa- 
gating the Gospel of Jesus Christ in New England," consisting 
of a president, treasurer, and fourteen assistants, to be called 
"the President and Society for the Propagation of the Gospel 
in New England." A general collection throughout England 
and Wales, made by direction of Cromwell, produced nearly 
;^i 2,000, the greater part of which was invested in real estate 

'Mayhew, Indian Converts, 12-13. 

'Light Appearing, etc., 13. An early example of the saying that those "who 
came to scoff, remained to pray." 

219 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

as a permanent asset. ^ The commissioners of the United 
Colonies on this side were made the agents for the manage- 
ment of the practical affairs, distribution of the funds, etc., 
and from this time forth the work of Mayhew was under the 
patronage of this historic society. He was paid an annual 
salary, and further allotments were made to this mission for 
books, material, and other miscellaneous objects, tending to 
the "encouragement" of the converts. Meanwhile, the work 
was progressing here, and the benevolent at home were in 
receipt of reports made by Mayhew and his friends. 

The narrator of the progress of events continues his 
annals thus : — 

And now in 1650, comes on the critical Point of the Credit and Power 
of the Pawaws among them: for Hiacoomes thus openly renouncing and 
protesting against the false Gods he had worshipped, with all the Pawaws 
their familiar Ministers; and with an amazing Courage, despising and 
defying their Power, the Pawaws were greatly enrag'd, and threatened his 
utter Destruction; but to their own and their Peoples Surprize and Con- 
fusion, were unable to hurt him. 

Mr. Mayhew improves the Advantage, and redoubles his Diligence, 
is incessant in his pious Endeavour: And now, while many are in doubt 
of their way, he offers to show them the right one; he spares not his Body 
either by Day or by Night: He readily travels and lodges in their smoky 
Wigwams; when he usually spends a great part of the Night in relating 
the antient Stories of GOD in the Scriptures, which were very surprizing 
and entertaining to them, and in other Discourse which he conceives most 
proper. 

He proposes such things to their Consideration which he thinks firstly 
requisite: he fairly solves their subtle Objections, and tells them they 
might plainly see, it was purely in good will to them, from whom he could 
expect no Reward, that he spent so much time and Pains, and endured 
so much Cold and Wet, Fatigue and Trouble. 

But as GOD was pleased to animate, uphold and preserve him, so 
also quickly to give a growing Success to his painful Labours. 

For soon after, an Indian standing up at the Lecture, confessed his 
Sins, declared his Repentance and Desire to forsake them, and to go in 
GOD's way; and then going to Towanquatick, took him by the Hand; 
and in his native Simplicity said, / love you, and do greatly desire to go 
along with you for GOD's sake: the same he said to some others; and 
then coming to Mr. Mayhew he said, / pray you to love me, and I do love 
you, and desire to go with you for GOD's sake; upon which they received 
him with Gladness of Heart. After this, there came five Men more; 
and by the End of the Summer, there were thirty nine Indian Men of this 

^" There is a corporation sitting formerly at Cooper's Hall commonly one Sat- 
terdayes from 9 to 10 o'clock for the Business. Hugh Peeters confessed of sixty 
thousand pounds, and the last yeare they said they had purchased land to about ;£iooo 
per ann: but shnmk to 700;^ now." Edward Godfrey, in Colonial Papers, P. R. O., 
XX, 19 (1660). 

220 



The Missionary Mayhews 

Meeting, who had not only the Knowledge of the main Points of Religion, 
and professed their Belief of them, but had also solemnly entered into a 
Covenant to live agreeably to them: Besides the well-instructed and be- 
lieving Women, who were supposed to exceed the number of the Men, 
tho they had not yet entered the Covenant. 

Mr. Mayhew's way in Publick now is, by a Lecture every Fortnight, 
where to both Men, Women and Children come; and first he plays, then 
preaches, then catechizes, then sings a Psalm, and all in their own Lan- 
guage. After Sermon, he generally spends more time than in the Sermon 
it self, in a more familiar Reasoning with them. And every Saturday 
Morning, he confers with Hiacoomes more privately about his subject 
matter of preaching to the Natives on both the Parts of the following 
Day; Mr. Mayhew directing him in the choice of his Text, and in the 
Management of it. 

About this time, viz. the Efid of the Summer, (1650) the Rev. Mr. 
Henry Whit-field, Pastor of the Church at Guildford New England, in his 
Voyage to Boston, in order to his Return to England, happened to put in 
at the Vineyard and to stay there ten Days. 

There he tells us, he found a small Plantation, and an English Church 
gathered, whereof this Mr. Mayhew was Pastor; that he had attained a 
good Understanding in the Indian Tongue, could speak it well, and had 
laid the first Foundations of the Knowledge of CHRIST among the Natives 
there, by preaching, &c. 

Mr. Whitfield attends Mr. Mayhew to a more private Indian Meeting, 
and the next Day to the Indian Lecture, where Mr. Mayhew preached; 
and then catechiz'd the Indian Children, who answered readily and mod- 
estly in the Principles of Religion; some of them answering in English, 
and others in the Indian Tongue: 

Thus — Mr. Whitfield — But quickly after he left Mr. Mayhew, there 
happened a thing which amaz'd the whole Island, and turned to the great 
and speedy Advancement of the Christian Religion. 

For it pleased GOD, who had drawn the Indians from the Pawaws 
to worship himself, whereat the Pawaws were greatly offended; yet now 
to persuade even two of themselves to run after those who fought him, 
and desire they might also go with them in the ways of that God whose 
name is JEHOVAH. They came very deeply convinced of the Sins they 
had liv'd in, and especially Pawawing; revealing the diabolical Mysteries, 
and expressing the utmost Repentance and Detestation of them; intreating 
that GOD would have Mercy upon them, pardon their Sins, and teach 
them his Ways, for CHRIST JESUS his sake. And very affecting it was 
to Mr, Mayhew and all who were present, to see these poor naked Sons 
of Adam, and Slaves to the Devil from the Birth, to come towards the Lord 
as they did, with their Joints shaking and their Bowels trembling; their 
Spirits troubled, and their Voices with much Fervency uttering Words of 
sore Displeasure against Sin and Satan, which they had embraced from 
their Childhood with great Delight. And now accounting it also their 
Sin that they had not the Knowledge of GOD, that they had served the 
Devil, the great Enemy both of GOD and Man, and had been so hurtful 
in their Lives; but yet being very thankful that thro' the Mercy of GOD 
they had an Opportunity to be delivered out of their dangerous Condition. 

221 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

The Christian Indians exceedingly rejoic'd to see the Pawaws begin 
to turn from their wicked Ways to the Lord; and in a Httle time after, 
on a Lecture-Da-Y, at the close of the Exercise, there were several more of 
the Natives who expressed their Desire to become the Servants of the 
MOST HIGH GOD; among whom was Teqiianomin, another Pawaw of 
great esteem and very notorious. And now indeed both the common 
Indians, and the Pawaws themselves, began to observe and confess, that 
since the Gospel had been preached to them, the Pawaws had been very 
much foil'd in their diabolical Essays; and instead of curing as formerly, 
they now had rather killed many. 

At the same time there came pressing in about fifty Indians more in 
one Day, desiring to join with the Worshippers of GOD in his service, 
confessing their Sins; some — those actual ones they had liv'd in, and 
others — the Naughtiness of their Hearts: Desiring to be made better; 
and for this end, to attend on the Word of God, and looking only to CHRIST 
for Salvation. And upon occasion, Mr. Mayhew observes that they gen- 
erally came in by Families; the Parents also bringing their Children with 
them saying, I have brought my Children too, I would have my Children 
serve God with ns, I desire that this son and this daughter may worship 
JEHOVAH. And if they could but speak, their Parents would have them 
say something to show their Willingness to serve the LORD: and when 
the Commandments were repeated, they all acknowledged them to be good, 
and made choice of JEHOVAH to be their God, promising by his Help 
to walk according to his Counsels, And when they were received by those 
that were before in the General Covenant, it was by loud Voices, giving 
Thanks to GOD that they were met together in the ways of JEHOVAH. 
This was all before the End of the Year 1650.^ 

We have seen, by the testimony of contemporaries, that 
the work done by young Mayhew was not advertised by him 
for the applause it might bring or the material advantages 
exploited for his benefit. When Whitfield visited the island 
in 1650, he said of the missionary, "I could get but little from 
him" in relation to his needs or the needs of the mission. 
Consequently the "New^ England Society," as it came to be 
called, did not immediately learn of the extent of the work 
carried on here. It is not until late in 165 1 that we have the 
first intimations that the society had any knowledge or interest 
in the Vineyard mission, as shown by the following letter : — 

New-haven Sep: 12: 165 1. 
Sir: — 

Wee have heard of the blessing God hath bestowed on youer labours 
in the Gospel amongst the poore Indians and desire with thankfulness to 
take notice of the same, and from the appearance of these first fruits to 
bee stirred up to seeke unto and waite upon the lord of the harvist that 
hee would send more labourers with the former and latter showers of his 
sperit that good corn may abundantly Spring up and this barren Wildemes 

^Prince, ut supra. 
222 



The Missionary Mayhews 



become a frutfuU feild yea the garden of God: and that wee might not 
bee wanting in the trust committed to us for the furtherance and incor- 
ragement of this worke wee thought good to let you understand ther is 
paid by the Corporacon in London ;^3o for part of Mr Gennors Hbrarye 
and as they informe us a Catalogue of the bookes sent over (which is for 
youer encoragement). Wee hope you have Received or els desire you 
would looke after them from Mr Eliott, or any other that may have them: 
or if ther bee any eror wee desire to heare itt: there are some houes and 
hatchetts sent over for the Indians encorragement of which youer Indians 
may have pt if you think meet, and bee pleased to give them a note to 
Mr Rawson of Boston of what shalbe needful for theire use, especially 
those that may bee most willing to laboure: wee alsoe are informed there 
is an £ioo given by 'some of Exeter towards this worke of which some pt 
to youer selfe, but know not the quantitie: wee should bee glad to heare 
how the work of God goes on amongst them with you that soe wee might 
enforme the Corporation in England, and have our harts more inlarged to 
God for them, soe with our best Respects wee Rest 

Your very frends &c.^ 

In a letter written to the Rev. Henry Whitfield, author 
of the tract entitled "The Light Appearing, &c." young May- 
hew, under date of ''Great Harbour, uppon the Vineyard, 
October i6th, 1651," makes the following statements concern- 
ing the progress of his missionary work since the last report : — 

And now through the mercy of God, there are an hundred and ninetie 
nine men women and children that have professed themselves to be wor- 
shippers of the great and ever living God. There are now two meetings 
kept every Lord's day, the one three miles, the other about eight miles 
off my house. Hiacoomes teacheth twice a day at the nearest, and Mum- 
aneqiiem accordingly at the farthest; the last day of the week they come 
unto me to be informed touching the subject they are to handle. ^ 

This winter I intend, if the Lord will, to set up a school to teach the 
Indians to read viz. the children, and also any young men that are willing 
to learne.^ 

The location of the meetings can only be conjectural, 
as it is not probable that a building for the use of the converts 
had been erected as early as that. Three miles from the house 
of the elder Mayhew would take us in a radius either to Katama, 
Felix Neck, or the shore of the Great Herring Pond, and the 
author inclines to the latter location as the probable place 
where stood the "Rock on a descending Ground, upon which 

'Records, Commissioners of United Colonies, I, 205. 

^Whitfield, "Strength out of Weaknesse," etc., pub. in London in 1652. 

' " On Jan. 11, 165 1-2, Mr. Mayhew fit up a school to teach the natives to read, 
viz., the children, and any young men who were willing to learn, whereof they were 
very glad. And as quickly there came in about thirty Indian children; he found them 
apt to learn; and more and more were coming every day." (Thomas Prince, " Indian 
Converts, " p. 289.) 

223 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

he used sometimes to stand and preach," and it is further 
conclusive that the meetings were open-air assemblies, during 
the propitious weather season. The meeting held eight miles 
off takes us directly to the present village of West Tisbury, 
and it is possible that the "school-house," so often mentioned 
in the early records of Tisbury, may have been a rude struc- 
ture used for this purpose, as well as for the instruction of 
the Indian youth in the English language. The location of 
this meeting cannot be more accurately determined. Ex- 
perience Mayhew says that INlomanequem preached in Nasho- 
wakemmuck, perhaps meaning close to the boundary line. 
The annals of the missions continue to record the progress 
of events as follows : — 

In the Spring of the Year 1652, the Indians, of their own accord 
made a Motion to Mr. Mayhew, that they might have some Method set- 
tled among them for the Exercise of Order and Discipline, that so they 
might be obhged to live in a due Subjection to the Laws of GOD; whereto 
they desired to enter into a Covenant: they desired him also to inform 
them what were the Punishments which GOD had appointed for those 
who brake his Laws, to which they were also willing to subject themselves; 
and that they might have some Men chosen among them, with his Father 
and himself, to see that the Indians walked in an orderly manner; en- 
couraging those who did so, and dealing with those who did not, according 
to the Word of GOD. 

In order to this, a Day of Fasting and Prayer was appointed to re- 
pent of their Sins, and seek the divine Presence and Help; and another 
shortly after, to finish the Work. Being then assembled together, some 
Indians spoke for their Excitation, and about ten or twelve of them prayed, 
as Mr. Mayhew describes it, not with a set form like Children, but like 
Men indued with the good Measure 0} the Knowledge of GOD, their own 
Wants and the Wants of others, with much Affection, and many spiritual 
Petitions favouring of an heavenly Mind. 

The same Morning Mr. Mayhew drew up an excellent Covenant in 
their native Language, which he often read and made plain to them: and 
they all with free Consent and Thankfulness united in it, and desired the 
Grace and Help of GOD to keep it faithfully; which were it not for mak- 
ing this Account too large, I should have here inserted.^ And Mr. Mayhew 
observed, that when they chose their Rulers, they made choice of sech as 
were best approved for Piety, and most like to suppress all Wickedness, 
and encourage Goodness; and that afterwards were they upon all Oc- 
casions forward to show their earnest Desire of the same. 

In short, by the end of October 1652, there were two hundred eighty 
two Indians, not counting young Children in the number, who were brought 
to renounce their false Gods, Devils and Pawaws, and publickly, in set 
meetings, before many Witnesses, had freely disclaimed and defied their 

'See letter of Thomas Mayhew, Jr., dated Oct. 22, 1652, printed in "Tears of 
Repentance." (London, 1653.) 

224 



The Missionary Mayhews 

tyrannical Power; yea, eight of their Pawaws had now forsaken their 
diabolical Craft, and profitable Trade, as they held it, to turn into the 
ways of GOD. And as not any of these were compelled thereto by Power, 
so neither were they allured by Gifts, having received none from the very 
Beginning.^ 

When Thomas Mayhew the younger began to be a salaried 
missionary of the society is not definitely known, but from the 
following letter it would appear that it was not until 1654 
that such a relation was established. Undoubtedly, he had 
been in receipt of irregular gratuities for some time, as con- 
tributions permitted. This communication from the com- 
missioners of the United Colonies, dated Sept. 18, 1654, gives 
us some interesting particulars of the way in which the busi- 
ness was handled by them : — 

Mr. Mahew: 

Wee have Received youer large letter of the i6th of the sixt 1654 
and not to trouble you or our selves with any long preface you may take 
notice wee have Considered the Contents therof and doe Rejoyce att the 
Information you give us of the Blessing of God upon youer labours among 
those poor barberous people upon the Island Etc : and theire dayly coming 
in to Imbrace the Gospell of Christ: which wee are willing to hope (att 
least for many of them), that it is in Cincerirtie and truly for the love 
of Christ himselve and not for loves and it is our prayer and earnest de- 
sire that the great expectations of the people of God concerning this greate 
worke may not bee frustrated or in any measure disappointed: as for our 
selves we are most Reddy and willing according to the trust comitted to 
us to doe what wee may to promote and Incurrage the same: and all 
such meet Instruments as laboure therein and therefor have agreed to 
allow youer selfe for youer pains and laboure this yeare the sume of forty 
pounds: and for a Scoolmaster and one or two meet persons (as there 
need may require), to teach the Rest, the summe of tenn pounds a peece 
p annum: Beginning from this time, as alsoe that tenn p more be comitted 
to you to dispose to sicke weake and well deserving Indians which wee 
desire may bee frugally Improved and an account thereof (as of what 
ever else you Receive to bestow upon the Indians), bee sent to the next 
meeting of the Commissioners: And for the meeting house which you 
desire to be built for the Indians though wee Conceive another form lesse 
Chargeable and of lesse Capacitie then you propound bee sufficient which 
wee leave to youer further Consideration: and such advice as you may 
take upon the place: yett wee shall allow upon that account the som of 
forty pounds, in Iron worke, Nayles, Glasse and such other pay as in our 
Agents hands, expecting the Indians should Improve theire labours to 
finish the same as they did at Naticke: and wheras wee are Informed 
that a Boat is necessasry and yett wanting for the safe passage of youer 
selfe and Indians betwixt the Island and the mayne wee have allowed 
eight pounds for that and desiring it may be carefully preserved and Im- 
ployed onely for the service Intended, and nott att the pleasure of the 

'Prince, ut supra. 

225 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

Indians Etc: upon other ocations. Wee desire you would be slow in 
withdrawing Indian professors from paying accustomed tribute and per- 
forming other lawful! services unto theire Sagamores, till you have seri- 
ously Considered and advised with the Majestrates and Elders of Naigh- 
bouring CoUonies least the passage and spreading of the Gospell bee 
hindred thereby. Soe wee Rest, 

Your loving frends.^ 

These grants amounted in the total to ;^i28, or an equiva- 
lent in the value of money to-day of about $2,500, of which 
the missionary received what would represent now a salary 
of $1,000 per annum. It is probable that no single person 
on the Vineyard was in receipt of so much actual money as 
this in the course of a year. This sum was allowed the next 
year to Mr. Mayhew, but at the next annual meeting of the 
commissioners, in September, 1656, his salary was increased 
to £50 per annum. At this meeting we first meet with the 
name of Peter Folger, who appears upon the payroll at £2,0 
yearly as "Imployed by Mr. Mayhew." There were two 
Indian interpreters, Hiacoomes and Pannuppaqua, who were 
to be paid ten pounds each for their services.^ This appar- 
ently constituted his staff, of which Folger probably acted as 
schoolmaster to the native youth, and the two Indians acted 
as preachers probably. That Hiacoomes did is well known, 
but the name of his associate does not appear among the 
"Godly Ministers" or "Good Men" in Experience Mayhew's 
"Indian Converts," at least under his Algonquian title. At 
the same time Mayhew was continuing his good work, and 
increasing his flock of catechumens for development in the 
new theology which he had brought for their acceptance. 
Each day and month lessened the strength and influence of 
the Pawwaws. On this Prince says: — 

Indeed the Natives in general observed to their wonder, that the 
Christians were all along exempted from being hurt by the Pawaws; even 
some of the Heathen Pawaws themselves at length came to own, that they 
could not make their Power to seize upon a Christian: and those who 
were yet Enemies to the Christian Indians, could not but acknowledge 
that the Blessing of Heaven was in an eminent manner among them. 

Continuing, the annalist summarizing the results of 
Mayhew's work at this period says: — 

Thus this worthy Gentleman continued his almost inexpressible La- 
bour, and vigilant Care for the Good of the Indians, whom he justly es- 

'Records, Commissioners of the United Colonies, II, 123. 
^Ibid., II, 141, 163, 167. 

226 



The Missionary Mayhews 

teemed his Joy and Crown. And GOD was pleased to give such a vic- 
torious Succese to his painful and unwearied Labours, that by the year 
1657, there were many hundred Men and Women added to the Christian 
Society, of such as might truly be said to be holy in their Conversation; 
and for Knowledge, such as needed not to be taught the first Principles 
of the Oracles of GOD: besides the many hundreds of looser and more 
superficial Professors. 

In this year, at the annual meeting of the commissioners, 
the same salary was voted for Mayhew, but the pay of ''an 
English Scoolmaster Imployed by him," (Peter Folger), was 
reduced ten pounds, and this sum was granted to "Mr May- 
hew Seni'r," but the purpose is not stated. The two native 
preachers and interpreters were continued at the old rate. 
By this time the mission work had been in existence about 
fourteen years, and it was so far successful and well-systema- 
tized with assistants who could carry on the work well under 
his guidance. At this time matters of a family and personal 
character, connected with the patrimony of his wife's brother, 
Thomas Paine, in England, demanded attention, and it was 
considered necessary that they should go over to the estates 
left to young Paine and settle his affairs permanently. May- 
hew requested leave of absence in 1656 for this purpose, but 
the commissioners told him that they were "assured that a 
worke of higher consideration would suffer much by his soe 
long absence advised him to send som other man."^ Mayhew 
listened to their advice, and agreed to postpone the trip to a 
more convenient time. It was delayed a year, but after the 
annual meeting of the commissioners this year (1657), he was 
allowed to go. His intention was, naturally, to combine this 
personal business with his own public labors, and he arranged 
his plans so as "to give a more particular Account of the State 
of the Indians than he could well do by Letters, and to pursue 
the most proper Measures for the further Advancement of 
Religion among them." To add a touch of realism to this 
part of his journey, he decided to take with him one of the 
converts, as a living evidence of the power of the Gospel of 
Christ. He chose a son of Miohqsoo, who was a preacher, 
and had been brought up by him in his own house. His in- 
tended departure with this young native caused the greatest 
interest and excitement among the people of his flock. His 
own projected absence was mourned in advance. It was said 
of them "that they could not easily bear his absence so far as 

'Records, Commissioners of the United Colonies, II, 165. 

227 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

Boston, before they longed for his return." He arranged a 
farewell meeting of his faithful followers, and the legend is 
that he went to the most distant assembly of them, probably 
in Taakemmy or Nashowakemmuck, where he held a service 
of worship and song, accompanied with a parting injunction 
to them to be steadfast in his absence. His journey towards 
the east end of the island became almost a triumphal pro- 
cession. They refused to consider this a farewell, and followed 
him homewards till he came to a spot on the "Old Mill Path," 
since known in song and story as the "Place on the Way-side," 
where by this time had gathered hundreds of others in an- 
ticipation of his return to meet with them. Here a great com- 
bined service was held, and the simple children of this flock 
heard their beloved shepherd give a blessing to them and say 
the last sad farewells to them individually and as a congrega- 
tion. It was a solemn occasion, long held in memory by all 
who participated. He made his departure from Boston in 
the month of November, with his two companions, says 
Gookin, "in the best of two ships then bound for London, 
whereof one James Garrett was master. The other ship 
whereof John Pierse was commander, I went passenger therein.^ 
Mr. Garrett's ship which was about four hundred tons had 
good accommodations greater far than the other: and shee 
had aboard her a very rich lading of goods, but most especially 
of passengers, about fifty in number; whereof divers of them 
were persons of great worth and virtue, both men and women ; 
especially Mr. Mayhew, Mr. Davis, Mr. Ince, and Mr. Pelham, 
all scholars and masters of arts, as I take it, most of them."^ 
When this ship cleared the white receding shores of Cap Cod 
in her outward voyage, and headed for the green pastures of 
Old England, it was the last seen of this fine vessel and her 
distinguished passengers. It was never known what disaster 
overtook her, but it only came to be known that she was long 
and then longer overdue, while her companion ship had 
reached her destination. Some great ocean cataclysm en- 
gulfed her, and she foundered in storm or collision with an 
iceberg. It must have been an awful and perhaps inspiring 
scene, as she carried with her to the chilling waters of the 

^Gookin "intended and resolved to pass in that ship: but the master who some- 
times had been employed by me and from whom I expected a common courtesy, 
carried it something unkindly, as I conceived, about my accommodation of a cabin; 
which was an occasion to divert me to the other ship, where I also had good accom- 
modation, and my life preserved, as the sequel proved." 

^Gookin, " Description of the New England Indians,'' 201. 

228 



The Missionary Mayhews 

great deep these precious lives of beloved fathers, husbands, 
and brothers. Doubtless Thomas Mayhew could say in that 
supreme moment, like Sir Humphrey Gilbert: "It is as near 
to Heaven by sea as by land." Weeks and months passed 
by without tidings of Master Garrett, and hope gave way to 
fear, then to despair, as the time lengthened out. Even as 
late as August, 1658, nearly a year after, the disconsolate old 
governor wrote, "I cannot yett give my sonnes over." There 
was still hope that they might have been captured by Spanish 
or Algerian pirates, and carried to the shores of the Mediter- 
ranean. But it was not to be. This young Christian warrior 
was to be the first of the hundreds of Vineyard men to perish 
"at sea." 

Contemporary writers, diarists, correspondents, and others, 
all refer to the loss of Thomas Mayhew, Junior, with appre- 
ciative words. Morton says: "Amongst many considerable 
passengers there went Mr. Thomas Mayhew, jun., of Martin's 
Vineyard, who was a very precious man. He was well skilled, 
and had attained to a great proficiency in the Indian language, 
and had a great propensity upon his spirit to promote God's 
glory in their conversion; whose labors God blessed for the 
doing of much good amongst them; in which respect he was 
very much missed amongst them, as also in reference unto the 
preaching of God's word amongst the English there. The 
loss of him was very great. "^ The commissioners of the 
United Colonies refer to his loss, "which att present seemeth 
to be almost Irrepairable,"^ and his fellow worker, the "Apos- 
tle" Eliot, said: "The Lord has given us this amazing blow, 
to take away my Brother Mayhew."^ 

The "Place on the Way-side," mentioned as the spot 
"where he solemnly and affectionately took his leave of that 
poor and beloved People of his," became in the minds of the 
Indians a sort of hallowed spot. It was the last place asso- 
ciated in their thoughts with their lost shepherd, and it is 
stated that the ground where he stood "was for all that Gen- 
eration remembered with sorrow." It is a part of the leg- 
endary lore of this spot, that no Indian passed by it without 
casting a stone into a heap that, by their custom, had thus 
grown like a cairn, in remembrance of him, to be a great 
monument to this sad event in their lives. The attachment 

'New England's Memorial. 

'Records, Commissioners of United Colonies. 

^Letter dated Dec. 8, 1658, published in London, 1659. 

229 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

must have been genuine, for we are told by an authority that, 
"for many Years after his departure, he was seldom named 
without Tears." It is one of the historic places on the island 
which has been suitably made a permanent memorial by the 
Martha's Vineyard Chapter, Daughters of the American Revo- 
lution, of Edgartown, who, on July 27, 1901, dedicated a 
bronze tablet, set in a large boulder, placed on top of the stone 
pile above referred to. The boulder was brought from Gay 
Head, by descendants of the "poor and beloved" natives who 
raised the foundations when passing by in generations since 
gone. The tablet bears the following inscription : — 

THIS ROCK MARKS THE "PLACE ON THE WAYSIDE" 
WHERE THE 

REV. THOMAS MAYHEW, JR., 

SON OF GOV. MAYHEW, 
FIRST PASTOR OF THE CHURCH OF CHRIST ON MARTHA'S 

VINEYARD, 
AND THE FIRST MISSIONARY TO THE INDIANS OF NEW 

ENGLAND, 
SOLEMNLY AND AFFECTIONATELY TOOK LEAVE OF THE 

INDIANS, 
WHO, IN LARGE NUMBERS, HAD FOLLOWED HIM DOWN 

FROM THE WESTERN PART OF THE ISLAND, 

BEING HIS LAST WORSHIP AND INTERVIEW WITH THEM 

BEFORE EMBARKING FOR ENGLAND IN 1657, 

FROM WHENCE HE NEVER RETURNED 

NO TIDINGS EVER COMING FROM THE SHIP OR ITS 

PASSENGERS. 

IN LOVING REMEMBRANCE OF HIM 

THOSE INDIANS RAISED THIS PILE OF STONES, 1657- 

1901. 

ERECTED BY THE MARTHA'S VINEYARD 

CHAPTER, 

DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 

THE LAND GIVEN FOR THIS PURPOSE BY CAPTAIN 

BENJAMIN COFFIN CROMWELL, OF 

TISBURY ; 

THE BOULDER BROUGHT FROM GAY^ HEAD, A GIFT 

FROM THE NOW RESIDENT INDIANS. 

TABLET PURCHASED WITH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM MAY'- 

HEW'S DESCENDANTS. 

Historical remarks relating to the subject of the memorial 
were made at the unveiling by Miss Harriet M. Pease and 
Dr. Charles E. Banks, and greetings from an Indian deacon 

230 



The Missionary Mayhews 

of the present church at Gay Head made a fitting close to the 
interesting exercises, conducted by Mrs. Warren, the Regent 
of the Chapter. 

The relative amount of funds allowed to the younger 
Mayhew, as compared to that given elsev^^here, became the 
subject of hostile criticism, as the facts were made public. 
It has been seen what salary was allowed to him, and the 
other gratuities annually voted for his assistants. It may be 
com.pared with that allowed to other workers elsewhere. 
Eliot received £50 per annum from 1656-1662, but the al- 
lowances to his assistants exceeded the amounts given to 
others. The total outlay of the society in 1658 was ;^520, of 
which sum less than one-fifth was appropriated for Vineyard 
workers.^ 

The elder Mayhew complained to the commissioners of 
the scanty sums given for this island. "When I consider the 
great somes given," he wrote to Governor Winthrop in 1658, 
''and that one maine cause of it was this work; and judging 
'twas given as one maine end for the comfort of those that 
began it, & were now uppon it, I say that they in the first 
place should be liberally provided for."^ Samuel Maverick, 
of Boston, in a written description of New England, thus 
refers to the matter : — 

Almost South some what Westerly from Billingsgate is Natuckett Is- 
land on which many Indians live and about ten leagues west from it is 
Martines Vinyard, whereon many Indians live, and also English. In this 
Island by Gods blissing on the Labour, care and paines of the two May- 
hews, father and sonn, the Indians are more civilized then anywhere else 
which is a step to Christianity, and many of them have attained to a greate 
measure of knowledge, and is hoped in a short time some of them may 
with joy & Comfort be received into the Bossome of the Church, The 
younger of those Mayhews was drowned comeing for England three yeares 
since, and the Father goes on with the worke, Although (as I under- 
stand) they have had a small share of those vast sumes given for this use 
and purpose of the Revenues of it It were good to enquire how it hath 
been disposed of I know in some measure or at least suspect the bus- 
sines hath not been rightly carryed.^ 

Governor Edward Godfrey of the Province of Maine, who 
was in England at the time of the Restoration, makes a mys- 
terious allusion to the subject in one of his indictments against 
the influences which controlled Massachusetts affairs: "I 

^Records, Commissioners of United Colonies, II, 167, 1S9, 205. 

h Mass. Hist. See. Coll., VII, 34. 

'Egerton Mss., 2395 (British Museum), ff. 397-411. 

2.^1 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

have endeavoured," he says, "to screw into the Great Benevo- 
lences that have been so pubhcly knowne to propagate the 
Gospell in New England .... there is a snake in the weeds. "^ 
It is interesting to observe the assertion of Thomas May- 
hew, the elder, that "one maine cause of it (the collection of 
funds for evangelizing the natives) was this work," begun by 
his son. He had received, according to the elder Mayhew, 
;£i6o in all, besides his books, during the fourteen years of 
his labors. "The work was followed by him," says the father, 
"when twas bare with him for foode and rayment, and then 
indeede there was nothing in sight any waies but Gods prom- 
ises."^ 

THOMAS MAYHEW, SENIOR. 

The work of converting the Indians to Christianity, when 
the young missionary left for England, was placed under the 
supervision of the father, while the same corps of assistants 
remained to follow out the plans laid out by their lost leader. 
The father was no stranger to this class of labor, though he 
was busy with the civil and material concerns of the island 
colony. In his anxiety for its proper continuance, as the long 
absence of the missionary became too great for hope of his 
return, he wrote to the commissioners about the future: "I 
thought good to certifye you that this ten yeares I have con- 
stantly stood ready to atend the work of God here amongst 
the Indians. Verry much time I have spent & made many 
Journies, and beene at verry much trouble and cost in my 
house, and I have reseved one yeare 20 li. and the last yeare 
ten pounds. It is more" he adds, "then when I entred on 
it I did expecte. Methinks that which I have had is verry 
little. Truely if I were now to be hired to doe ass much 
yearely as I have donne, thirtie pounds per annum, & more 
to, would not doe it."^ It was indeed a difficult place to fill, 
requiring peculiar qualifications, a knowledge of the Indian 
character, and more than all this, an ability to speak their 
tongue. This the elder Mayhew had to the fullest extent. 
"His place as Patentee and chief Ruler," says Prince in a 
sketch of his life, "obliged him not only to a frequent Con- 
verse with the Natives, but also to learn so much of their 
Language as was needful to understand and discourse with 

'Colonial Papers, P. R. O., XX, 19. 
\ Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., VII, 34. 
^Ibid. 

232 



The Missionary Mayhews 

them."^ But he realized that he was nearly three score and 
ten years of age, and that a younger man was needed to carry 
on the work. He suggested to the commissioners that either 
Rev. John Higginson or Rev. Abraham Pierson be urged to 
take up the fallen burden, and bear it along the paths blazed 
by his son. The commissioners responded: — 

You may assure youer selfe that wee will use all Dilligence to make 
a supply as the Lord may direct us: wee shall according to your advise 
move Mr. John Higginson and Mr. Pierson, but we greatly feare wee 
shall not prevaile unlesse the Lord strongly sett in to pswade them. 

But Mayhew would not be discouraged, and wrote to one 
of the members: — 

If my Sonne be gonne to heaven, I shall press very hard upon Mr. 
Higginson to come here, as I have written to the commisioners. 

Meanwhile, the work was going on under the old staff, 
with the aged magistrate directing the details. This was 
what the commissioners in reality wished to bring about: — 

Wee thinke that God doth call for youer more then ordinery Assis- 
tance in this Worke, and are very well pleased that youer sperit is soe 
farr Inclined therunto: and desire you may persevere therein. 

Mayhew was solicitous for the welfare of the young widow 
with her three sons and three daughters, left without means 
of support. He asked that the society give her aid on account 
of the services of the deceased missionary, and that it "find a 
way to keepe two of the sonnes at schoole."^ Mrs. Mayhew, 
Junior, attended the annual meeting of the commissioners in 
September, 1658, and laid her case before them personally, 
and they gave her an allowance of twenty pounds "in con- 
sideration of her husbands paines and labours amongst the 
Indians," and wrote the father that "youer Daughter Mayhew 
was also with us and hath received such Incurragement from 
us as wee thought we might adventure to bestow : but shal bee 
very free to doe further as the Corporation shall advise."* 
At this same meeting, the following grants, in addition, were 
made : — 

To Mr. Thomas Mayhew senr for his paines in teaching and 

instructing the Indians this year to September 1658 20 00 00 

To Thomas and James two Indians Interpreters and school 
masters that Instruct the Indians att Martins Vineyards 
each ten pounds 20 00 00 

'Indian Converts, 297. 

'4 Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., VII, 34. 

'Records, Commissioners of the United Colonies, II, 205. 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

To Peter Folgure English scoolmaster that teacheth the Indians 

and Instructs them on Lords day 25 00 00 

To Mrs. Bland for healpfulnes in Phisicke and Chirurgery att 

Martins Vineyards* 02 00 00 

The usual allowances for Hiacoomes were made in addi- 
tion to the above grants, and the commissioners wrote: "wee 
hope god will afford strength who hath given you a hart for 
this great worke." It was indeed a great work, and one which 
ought to have engaged the energies of a much younger man, 
but none came forward to fill the vacant chair. The salary 
offered was not sufficient for the purpose of attracting anyone 
not having his heart in the task. "I pray take it for granted, 
if such employment as mine amongst the Indians be not to be 
considered, or verry little, I hope I shall sattisfie my sellfe 
whether the call of God by the Indians, which is still continued 
by them verry lately expressing themselves to that purpose." 
In these words he placed the matter squarely before the com- 
missioners, and went about his w^ork. The misgivings in the 
old man's mind over all these conflicting circumstances are 
told by the pastor of the Old South Church, Boston, in lan- 
guage that reflects accurately what passed therein, and his 
words are quoted at length : — 

He sees no Probability of obtaining so sufficient a Salary as might 
invite a regular Minister to engage in the Indian Service; he has little 
or no Hopes of finding any of the Spirit of his deceased Son, to bear the 
Burden attending, and at this time of Necessity to be undergone, with a 
Prospect of more than could well be expected, to encourage to so toil- 
some a Work; he considers, that his excellent Son had spent his Strength, 
and yet rejoiced in the midst of these many Aches, Pains and Distempers, 
contracted by his often lodging on their hard Matts, in their exposed Wig- 
wams, and enduring wet and cold, in Faith of God's accepting and pros- 
pering him in that painful Work, whereto he could see no earthly Ad- 
vantage that might rationally move or encourage him. The pious Father 
concludes that this was all of GOD, and not merely of Man: and when 
he looked on the Indians, he could not bear to think that the Work so 
hopefully begun, and so far advanced by his Son, should now expire with 
him also. 

In the Consideration of these things, an holy Zeal for the Glory of 
God, and a most compassionate Charity for the Souls of this bereaved 
and perishing People, kindle up in his Breast. They raise him above 
all those Ceremonies and petty Forms and Distinctions that lay in the 
Way, and which he accounted as nothing in competition with their eternal 
Salvation: and he therefore resolves to do his utmost, both to preserve 
this most important Work, and to carry it on under all external Difficul- 
ties and Discouragements. 

He determines frequently to visit and encourage this poor People. 
He goes once every Week to some of their plantations. At so advanced 

* Records, Commissioners of the United States, II, 205. 



The Missionary Mayhews 

an Age he sets himself with unwearied Diligense to perfect himself in 
their Difficult Language; and tho a Governour, yet is not ashamed to 
become a Preacher among them. And his Heart was so exceedingly en- 
gaged in the Service, that he spared no Pains nor Fatigues, at so great 
an Age therein; sometimes travelling on Foot nigh twenty Miles thro' 
the Woods, to preach and visit, when there was no English House near 
to lodge at, in his absence from home.^ 

Very little can be added to this clearly limned picture of 
this new missionary, as he took up the burden dropped by 
the younger man when no one else arose to fill the vacant 
chair. 

By the end of the next summer, before the annual meeting 
of the commissioners, the elder Mayhew addressed a letter 
to his friend, Governor John Winthrop, Jr., of Connecticut, 
giving him an explanation of the situation up to that time. 
Omitting the formal portions, the abstract follows: — 

I have ever borne the greatest burthen touchinge this worke when 
my Sonne was here, hardly ever free, and I have through mercye taught 
them this year, and doe still goe on, and the Lord hath strengthened me 
much of late, beyond my expectation. I am sorry that the Commissioners 
did not send some trustye & considerable person to see how things are 
carried on here. ]\ir. Browne of Seacunck, ere he went for England, 
wrote me he would come on purpose to sattisfie himsellfe about these 
Indians, whoe had, as I perceived, many doubts of them & all the rest. 
I understand there is little or noe hopes of Mr. Pierson. I am still of 
this mind, that a man will fitt the church here, & the Indians allsoe, is 
abundantly most convenient : though he hath little or noe Indian languadge, 
he will soon attaine it, with the hellpes that are here now: I have wrote 
the Commissioners I can clearly make knowne to them by an interpreter, 
what I know mysellfe. I do speake to them sometimes about an hoiu"e. 
I ask sometimes where they understand: they say yes: and I know they 
doe, for in generall I really know they understand me, but sometimes I 
dount mysellfe & then I ask. Notwithstandinge this, I desire, if it may 
be, a sollid man & a scholler for both works. If not, for the present the 
Indians are comfortably supplied. If I should be taken by death, here 
is hellpe that the schoolmaster who hath some languadge,^ and my sonne 
Doggett^ that hath I think much more than any English man uppon the 
Island, and is a considerable young man : & of the Commissioners I much 
desire, if I come not, that touching the business that the Commissioners 
of the Bay may have some power granted to consider with me & deter- 
mine what they shall see good grounds for. I resolve, if God will, for to 
goe thither before the meeting next year, either before winter or at Springe. 

You may be pleased to tell the Commissioners that I say & tis true 
that I have great neede to have what may be justly comminge to me for 
this worke to supply my wants.* 

'Indian Converts, 298. 

^Peter Folger was the schoolmaster. 

^Thomas Daggett, his son-in-law. 

*4 Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., VII, 36. Letter dated Aug. 29, 1659. 

235 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

At the annual meeting of the commissioners, held in Sep- 
tember, 1659, the following allowances were made by them 
for the work on the Vineyard : — 

Imprimis to Mr Thomas Mahew for his paines in teaching and 

Instructing the Indians at Marthis vinyards, 30 00 00 

To Peter Folger, an EngUsh schoolmaster there, 20 00 00 

To four Indian Teachers there, one ten pounds, the other three 

five pounds apiece ^ 25 00 00 

Among the plans which the new incumbent devised for 
the improvement of the natives was an advanced education 
at some of the schools in or around Boston, with perhaps a 
collegiate course for such as should prove fit to receive it. 
The commissioners were evidently doubtful of the expediency 
of this idea, and wrote him in somewhat of a cautionary tone: 
"Conserning the Indian boys you do speake of sending wee 
desire that they should bee well entered, that is fitt for the 
accidence before they come hither." By this last phrase was 
meant, prepared for teaching in the grammar. The plan 
was not immediately ' adopted. The accounts of the com- 
missioners for the next year contain the following items : — 

To Mr Thomas Mahew for Teaching and Instructing the In- 
dians att the Vineyard for this yeare (1660), 30 00 00 

To Peter Folger a Teacher and Scoolmaster to the Indians 

there, 20 00 00 

To Hiacoomes an Indian Scoolmaster and Teacher of them on 

the Lords day, 10 00 00 

To seaven other Indian Teachers comended to us by Mr.Mahew 

that are healpful in Teaching others,^ 17 10 00 

The advancement of the work along natural lines seemed 
to the new helmsman to be in the direction of making these 
many converts into one church organization, formed like the 
churches of the English, and he determined to try the experi- 
ment. Accordingly, he arranged for the regular ceremonies 
incident to such affairs, and sent invitations to Gov. Thomas 
Prence of Plymouth, "and several others, but they came not," 
the old missionary says, "but the English on the island and 
several strangers of divers places present did well approve of 
them."^ It is presumed that the formation of this "church" 
was not regarded as complete according to the rules of Con- 
gregational bodies. It is probable that Hiacoomes was pastor. 

'Records, Commissioners of the United Colonies, II, 218. 
^Ibid. 

'Letter, Thomas May hew to Daniel Gookin, dated Sept. i, 1674. Rev. John 
Cotton said this church was "gathered," but had no "officers." 

236 



The Missionary Mayhews 

Among the other plans for the continuance of the work 
was the education of the eldest son of the deceased missionary, 
young Matthew, preparatory to his following in the footsteps 
of his father. Accordingly, he was sent to school in Cam- 
bridge, in order that he might be liberally educated, and pro- 
ceed further in a collegiate course when he grew older. We 
see his name in the accounts of the commissioners for 1659, 
for the first time. The "Indian boyes" also appear in the 
accounts for the year 1661, which are here given, showing 
many grants to the work on the island, aggregating ;^2ii, or 
an equivalent of about $5000 in the money of the present 
day. It is evident that the criticisms of the public as to dis- 
criminations against the island missions had been of some 
effect. 

To Mr Thomas Mayhew of the Vineyards for his sallary 30 00 00 

More for his extreordinary paines charge and trouble the 

time past among the Indians there 10 00 00 

To 8 Indian scoolmasters and Teachers of the Indians there, 
viz: — To Sacomas, Memeekeen, Takanah, Kisquick, 
Samuel, Manaso, James and Annawanett 30 00 00 

To Wheele Cards and Cotton woole to Imploy the Indian 
weemen att the Vinyards to bee kept as a comon stock for 
them 10 00 GO 

To Mistris Mayhew the Relicte of Mr. Thomas Mahew for her 
Incurragement and support 

To Fisenden of Cambridge for the Diet of Mathew Mahew 

To Peter Folger a Teacher att the Vineyard 

To Mistris Bland for her paines care and Phisicke for the In- 
dians att the Vineyard for the yeare and to satisfy her for 
what was short of her expectation and expence the last 
yeare 

To Mr. Danforth of Cambridge for the Diett and clothing of 
4 Indian Scollors for one yeare ending att October nexte 
att 15 lb a piece 

To the clothing of Mathew Mayhew for the yeare past 

To wood for the scoole 

To Mr Mahew that hee distributed to well deserving Indians 

To severall books delivered to the Indian scollars and Matthew 
Mahew as by accounts appears 

To clothing an Indian att his first coming 

To Mr Corlett for teaching 4 Indians and Mathew Mahew ^ 

At this time the natives of Gay Head, who were nearer 
the influences of their chiefs on the main land, had "obsti- 
nately" refused to have aught to do with the religion of the 
English. For about twenty years they had resisted all ap- 

'Records of the Commissioners of the United Colonies, II, 261. 



10 


CO 


GO 


08 


GO 


GO 


20 


GG 


00 


05 


OG 


00 


60 


GO 


GO 


05 


GG 


GO 


00 


18 


GO 


02 


GO 


GO 


08 


17 


13 


01 


00 


GO 


12 


00 


GG 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

proaches on the subject, and now the old missionary turned 
his energies towards bringing them into the fold. His biog- 
rapher says that he did not "content himself with the Progress 
which his son had happily made before him, but indefatigably 
labours for a further Advancement." This was the only spot 
on the island where heathen rites were still carried on, and he 
wished to clean the board entirely. So he began with the 
Sachem Mittark about this time, and got him interested in 
the subject through his native teachers. Meanwhile the other 
work was going on as before. The missionary-magistrate 
"ordinarily preached to some of their Assemblies one Day 
every Week," and from the narration of the general character 
of his work heretofore quoted, we may conclude that he fully 
earned the pay allowed him by the society. The records of 
the commissioners for the two following years contain these 
items relating to the Vineyard : — 

September lo, 1662. 

To Mr Mahew of Martins Vinyard his sallary for a year past 30 00 00 
To eight Indian Scoolmasters att Martins Vinyard, viz: — 
lacoms, Mamnachesen, Tacanash, Kesquish, Samuel 
Nacasco, James and Annawamett. 30 00 00 

September 3, 1663. 

To Mr Thomas Mahew att the Vineyard his sallary 30 00 00 

To eight Indian Teachers and Scoolmasters att the Vinyard ^ 30 00 00 

One of the Indian "boyes" sent from the Vineyard, upon 
the recommendation of the new missionary, was a son of the 
Sachem of Homes Hole, and he had by this time so far pro- 
gressed in his studies, that he was entered as a student at 
Harvard College, and was making excellent improvement, 
passing his examinations satisfactorily. Other students were 
now sent.^ 

In 1664, the accounts show that the salary of Mr. Mayhew 
was increased to forty pounds, and that the eight schoolmasters 
continued to be carried on the payroll of the society. It is 
apparent that the compensation paid to the principal persons 
in the employ of the society depended on the available funds 

'Records, Commissioners of the United Colonies, II, 277, 296. 

^At this meeting of the Commissioners it was ordered "that the severall of those 
Indians scoUars att Mr. Welds bee Removed to the gramer Scoole att Cambridge att 
the expiration of this yeare and hee is alowed to take another youth now sent from 
Martins Vineyard that came to him about the 9th of this Instant (September)." 
(Ibid., II, 280.) 

238 



The Missionary Mayhews 

from time to time, and not upon any stipulated rate/ At this 
juncture, Rev. John Cotton had received and accepted a call 
to the English church society of Edgartown, and had become 
interested in the work of Christianizing the natives. En- 
couraged by Mr. Mayhew, he set about to learn the language 
spoken by the island tribes. "He hired an Indian after the 
rate of Twelve pence per day for Fifty days to teach him the 
Indian Tongue," says his nephew, Cotton Mather, "but his 
Kjiavish Tutor having received his Whole Pay too soon, ran 
away before Twenty Days were out; however in this time he 
had profited so far that he could quickly preach unto the 
Natives."^ Thus he became a welcome assistant to the old 
missionary, and gradually fitted himself for the special duties 
of such a position in case of need. 

In 1666, Mittark, the Sachem of Gay Head, who had 
been attending the mission meetings at Nunpaug for the past 
three years, during a temporary residence there, embraced the 
new religion and, returning to his home, began preaching to 
his people, and they followed him into the church of the Puri- 
tans, thus completing the work of evangelization upon the 
island among all the sachemships. It was the final great 
result of the labors of the aged missionary. 

The accounts of the commissioners for the year 1666 are 
not extant. In 1667, the name of John Cotton appears for 
the first time as recipient of a salary of thirty pounds for 
preaching to the Indians, and his wife was paid ten pounds 
"for Phisicke and Surgery" among them. At this same meet- 
ing, September, 1667, Mr. Mayhew was allowed thirty pounds, 
the same as Mr. Cotton; there were nine Indian "scool- 
masters" this year who received thirty- two pounds, and five 
pounds were voted to Matthew Mayhew, who was being edu- 
cated to take his grandfather's place.* This year also wit- 
nessed the last appearance of the new assistant, Mr. Cotton, 
on the rolls of the society. He quarrelled with Mayhew and, 
having received urgent calls to go to Plymouth, he thought 
best to sever his connections with those who could not get 
along with him. The cause of the trouble is not known. 
The situation was a delicate one, considering all the circum- 
stances. Matthew was ostensibly preparing for the work, 

^Records, Commissioners of the United Colonies, II, 317. 

^He left some valuable notes on the Indian grammar which his son Josiah ex- 
tended, and they are now in existence. 

'Records, Commissioners, etc., II, 330. 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

under the guidance of his grandfather, at the expense of the 
society, and it is probable that Mr. Cotton found that the old 
missionary was not the easiest master to serve. The young 
minister undoubtedly had "ideas" which were not approved 
by the elder man, and the future being uncertain, discords 
resulted. Both carried their grievances to the commissioners, 
and the following record of it appears in their proceedings : — 

Mr. John Cotton appeered before the Commissioners and was seri- 
ously spoken too To Compose those allianations between him and Mr. 
Mahew: other wise it was signified to him that the Commissioners could 
not expect good by theire laboure whereas by their mutuall Contensions 
and Invictives one against the other they undid what they taught the 
Natives. 

Mr. Cotton told them that he had received "sundry calles" 
to go to other places, and "he was left to his libertie to dispose 
of himself e as the Lord should Guid him."^ He finally went 
to Plymouth, where he continued the work of preaching to 
the Indians of that locality. 

"When I lived at the Vineyard, (1665-1667)," says Rev. 
John Cotton, "the praying towns were Chappaquidgick, Nash- 
amoiess, Sengekontaket, Taakiminy, Nashuakemmuck (and) 
Talhanio." This last name is an undoubted misreading for 
some locality not now known in that form. The word is not 
Algonquian, and without the original text before us it must pass 
as printed. As no mention is made of Christiantown, where 
a "praying town" had been granted several years before this, 
we may suppose that Onkokemmy may be intended. Thus 
matters went on with such satisfaction for the next few years 
that in 1670 the growth had been so steady, and the converts 
had proven so staunch in the new faith, that Mr. Mayhew 
made arrangements to perfect the tentative organization of 
1659, and give the Indian church full powers under the Con- 
gregational orders. Prince the annalist says : — 

The Day appointed being come, which was August 22, 1670, an 
Indian Church was compleatly formed and organized, to the Satisfaction 
of the English Church, and other religious People on the Island, who had 
Advantage of many Years Acquaintance, and sufhcient Experience of 
their Qualifications. At this Solemnity it seems the famous Mr. Eliot 
was also present; for in a Letter of September 20, 1670, published the 
Year after at London, in a Tract entituled, A brief Narative of the Prog- 
ress of the Gospel among the Indians in New-England, i^i the Year 1670, 
he gives an Account of the State of the Natives under the Hands of this 



240 



The Missionary Mayhews 

Mr. Mayhew, and tells us, "That passing over to the Vineyard,^ many 
were added to the Church of that Place, both Men and Women, and 
were all of them baptized, and their Children also with them; and that 
the Church was desirous to have chosen Mr. Mayhew for their Pastor, 
but he waved it, conceiving that in his present Capacity, he has greater 
Advantages to stand their Friend, and do them Good, to save them from 
the Hands of such as would bereave them of their Lands, &c. But they 
should always have his Counsel Instruction, and Management in all their 
Ecclesiastical Affairs, as they hitherto had; that he would die in this 
Service of CHRIST. "' 

The Apostle Eliot came, as the leading light in the mis- 
sionary firmament, together with Mr. Cotton, the former 
preacher here, and by them together with the aid of Mr. 
Mayhew the regular rites were administered. "We did at 
first receive them," says Mayhew, "they renouncing heathen- 
ism and confessing their sins: and those were generally pro- 
fessors." The three missionaries, Eliot, Mayhew, and Cotton, 
imposed hands in the ordination of Hiacoomes as Pastor, 
John Tackanash as teacher, and John Nahnoso and Joshua 
Momatchegin as ruling elders, the first regularly ordained 
church officers in the native church on the Vinevard. Hia- 
coomes continued in charge of his flock for many years after, 
surviving his colleague, Tackanash, who died in 1684. Hia- 
coomes delivered a funeral oration at the beloved teacher's 
funeral, which has been preserved to future generations by 
the diligence of Rev. John Mayhew, who "took in Writing 
the Heads of the said Speech." Hiacoomes joined in the ordi- 
nation of his successor, Japhet Hannit, giving the "charge" 
required by the rites of Congregational orders. "I saw him 
frequently when I was a Youth," says Experience Mayhew, 
"and still remember him, the Gravity of his Countenance, 
Speech and Deportment. He seemed always to speak with 
much Thought and Deliberation, and I think very rarely 
smiled. I was present when he laid hands on Mr. Japhet, 
prayed and gave the Charge to him: which Service he per- 
formed with great Solemnity." He survived until 1690, when 
in the fulness of a great age he "went into Eternal Rest." 
Tackanash was the virtual successor of Hiacoomes when the 
latter became superannuated, and was made the pastor of the 
united churches on the east end of the Vineyard before his 

*Dr. Increase Mather says that both Mr. Eliot and Mr. Cotton went over, and 
assisted in the ordination, in his Latin letter to the famous Mr. Leusden of Utrecht, 
written in 1687, and published at London in 1688. 

'Indian Converts, 300. 

241 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

death. "When there was no EngUsh Pastor upon the Island," 
says the author of "Indian Converts," "some of our godly 
English People very chearfuUy received the Lord's Supper 
administered by him ; and I suppose none would have scrupled 
it, had they understood the Indian Language," That he was 
highly esteemed by both his own people and the whites is 
evident from the excellent character given to him by the author 
just quoted. He died Jan. 22, 1683-4, and was buried the 
next day in the presence of a great concourse of mourners, 
probably at Nunnepoag where he lived. The ruling elder, 
John Nahnoso, was an Indian of Sanchakantacket, and up- 
held the requirements and dignities of his sacred office worthily, 
according to the accounts which have come down to us. He 
was by virtue of his position in the church known by the 
Indians as an "Aiuskomuaeninuog," or Reprover, the Man 
of Reproofs, because they admonish sinners and offenders 
against discipline of the church. He died in 1678, "univers- 
ally esteemed a good Man." The other ruling elder, Joshua 
Momatchegin, lived on Chappaquiddick, and survived all 
his colleagues of the first church. When the church was divided 
later on, and those living at Chappaquiddick were set off as a 
separate body, he with Hiacoomes were the principal officers, 
but after the death of Hiacoomes, the membership fell off 
almost to the vanishing point, and the place was "unchurched," 
according to his biographer. Nevertheless he continued stead- 
fast, and "tho there was such a Flood of strong Drink, as 
drowned most of the People in the Place where he lived, yet 
he kept wholly free from any Excess in the Use of those Liquors 
by which his Neighbours were destroyed." He died about the 
year 1703. 

It is to be understood that this church, then gathered, 
comprised in its membership the converted natives from all 
parts of the island. It is presumed that the meeting house 
was at Nunnepog in Edgartown, and may have been the 
structure for which the commissioners made an appropriation 
in 1654.' This combination of all the praying Indians into 
one church proved not to be a practical arrangement, and 
within two years there was a division, "the pastor and one 
ruling elder for Chappaquidgick; the teacher and the other 
ruling elder for the other church, which hath some members, 
if I mistake not," says Mr. Cotton, "in all the other towns 

^This meeting house was destroyed by fire. (Indian Converts, ii6.) 
242 



The Missionary Mayhews 

above mentioned." Meanwhile, as elsewhere related, the 
civil affairs of the Vineyard were undergoing a radical change, 
under the political connection established with the duke's new 
administration in New York, and Magistrate and IMissionary 
Thomas Mayhew was acquiring greater powers both over the 
English and the Indians. The missionary-governor, in his 
hour of civil honors, did not forget his wards, and bespoke 
the interest of his suzerain, Governor Lovelace, in the develop- 
ment of his work. This was all unknown to the cavalier 
executive. Christianizing aborigines, but he gave the old mis- 
sionary a letter to the governor of New Plymouth, in which 
he says: "I doe Recommend it you that you'l please to graunt 
to him some enlargm't of Recompence for his Trouble and 
Paines amongst the Indians soe farr as conveniently it may 
be done for his Encouragement in his Ancient Dayes. He 
together with his deceased sonn haveing been Instruments of 
doeing much Good by their Instructions in bringing divers 
of them to the knowledge of the Christian Religion wch is 
worthy of great Commendacon. What Civility you shall doe 
him herein shall bee kindly acknowledged."^ 

The condition of the mission work here at this time is 
fully detailed in a letter of Thomas Mayhew to the commis- 
sioners, under date of August 23 of this year (1671), and it 
will be quoted in full : — ^ 

Right Worth: & Worsh'll 

The Commissioners of the United Collonies 

these are to Informe you touchinge the present state of the 
word of God amongst the Indians uppon thes lies the Vynyard and Nan- 
tukkett as farr as I can Judge by such as I have spoken with from time to 
time till this present both such as are of the Churche and those that are 
praying Indians Doe in a Comfortable manner upphold the publique wor- 
shippe and service of God: I meete with nothing that doth Contradicte 
it. For the Vynyard the two Churches goe on verry well with whome 
myselfe & others have communicated: done by them in a Solemne Man- 
ner. My sellf the two pastoers & one of the elders doe usually spend 
most parte of the last day of the weeke together for the better progresse 
of this great designe: Those are many that have Cast of heathenisme and 
except those at the Gayhead of all the rest I know not of any but will say 
they approve of the way of God: many occasions I have to reason with 
those I most suspect. The Counsell wee heare they say is verry good 
though many practice litl yett in words they side with it. Uppon my 

^New York Col. Mss. (Deeds), III, 74. 

^i Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., VI, 196. On the contrary, Simon Atheam and Jacob 
Perkins of Tisbury complained bitterly of Mayhew's lenience to the Indians in court. 
(N. Y. Col. Mss., XXIV, 159.) 

243 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

returne from York I called all the Sachims together with the Chieffest 
amongst the rest for to acquaint them that seeing they had acknowledged 
our king to be theirs & to fight for him and with his subjects against his 

& their enemies: that now the gentelman that orders government here 
had taken them into his highnes p'tecon and in all extremities would assist 
them expecting from them no other returne but that they lived quiettly 

Sz: peaceably under the govment he had sett over them: being mysellfe 
the wch he had wholly for diverse reasons Refered unto me: of which 
every man accepted of thankfully: And not onely soe but after much 
discourse I made a vote as to the waie of God and there was not one but 
helld upp his hand to furthere it to the uttmost. Many of them not 
p'fessed praying men diverse allso spake verry well to the thing p'pounded. 
I remember not such an unyversall Consent till now: As to the meetings 
uppon this Hand there are two Chvu-che meeteing and three other. In 
all which there are generall Church Members: this is besides what is 
Donne by Metark at his place & sometimes some other helpe: besid this 
there are 15 families at Elizabethes lies 7 whereof are praying families: 
the teachers I shall sett downe underneath: Concerning theire Sallary 
Severall doe speake of it as small if it may be Inlardged I desire it and 
that 50 li may be added to Elizabeth's He wch Indians are under my care 
allso: for my part tis well knowne my time is either at home or abroade 
spent generally uppon this service, and soe it was about seven yeares ere 
I had any consideration wch some thought I should have being in oface: 
Seeing it pleaseth God for to Contynue me in my measure serviceable 
thus farr now hallfe my eightieth yeare. If a rule for bounty for me 
may be found use it I suppose when I am gonne it will cost double to doe 
what I doe now or have donne. As Mr Elliot writes I see but few that 
attend this Imployraent. I had greate hopes till now to have scene you 
at Plymouth: a letter is litle to a man's presence: besides that this is 
hastyly, a vessel being in the harbor to goe uppon the first tourn of the 
wether being but a weeke before the tyme: I take it for granted by a letter 
I did receive from Boston yesterday you sitt not at Plymouth: I have 
sent to be more certeinely Informed: if I finde you doe soone ynough if 
God will I shall com: Thus Saluteing you with al due Respecte humbly 
Intreating you to take in good p'te this shorte Information: Committing 
you to the guydance & p'tecon of the almighty in your weightye affayres 

& desyring yo'r prayers I rest 

The humble Servaunt of your much 
honoured Selves to serve In Xt Jesus 
23 : 6 : 71 uppon the Vinyard. THOMAS MAYHEW 

Over leafe 

The Names of the Teachers 

lacombes 10 00 00 

Toquenosh pastor allso 5 00 00 

To Mumannequin 2 00 00 

To Samuell & Nunaso 5 00 00 

To John Amannett & famy 5 00 00 

To Nanankommin & Eanawannett 5 00 00 

To Nantukkett Sachim 3 00 00 

To Metark 3 00 00 

244 



2 


oo 


oo 


2 


lO 


OO 


2 


lO 


oo 


2 


lO 


oo 


48 


oo 


00 


OI 


lO 


oo 


49 


lO 


oo 



The Missionary Mayhews 

To John lacombes 
To John Gybbs 

To the Sachims from Nantukkett 
Ive give 50 sh for some that have donne some service 
at Elizabeths He 



To Nathaniel for schooling some time since ^ 



At a meeting of the commissioners of the United Colonies, 
held on the 6th of September, 1672, the following grants were 
made for carrying on the mission work on this island : — 

To old Mr. Mahew of the Vineyard 40 00 00 

To sundry Indian Teachers and Rulers on Martins Vine- 
yards and Nantuckett under the Government of Mr. 
Mayhew. ^ 57 00 00 

The advancement of the work of converting the Indians 
was greater on this island than elsewhere. It was the only 
place at this time which had two established churches. Even 
the church at Natick, under Eliot, was not organized with 
officers, as was the case here. It will not be necessary to 
follow from year to year any further the fortunes of this mis- 
sionary undertaking, lest it become too monotonous and occupy 
greater space than can be spared. The ten years succeeding 
this date represent the last decade of the life of their ancient 
teacher, and it is not to be expected that much active work 
would be done by him at his advanced age. In 1678 the 
two churches had over forty members who "walked inofen- 
sively," and the several bodies of praying Indians were now 
methodically divided into at least seven regular meetings 
holding weekly services with eleven teachers, over which he 
kept general supervision, preaching to one or the other of the 
meetings as his strength permitted.^ Prince says: ''Nor did 
the Settlement of a Church with Pastors among them abate 
of his ministerial Care or Pains for these aboriginal Natives: 
but this honourable and antient Gentleman still proceeds in 
the laborious Work, even to the ninety third Year of his Age, 
and the twenty third of his ministry, which was in 1681, when 
he dies, to the great Lamentation both of the English and 

^Records of the New England Company, pp. 39-43. Some references to Nan- 
tucket are omitted. 



^Records, Commissioners of the United Colonies, II, 356. 
'Conn. Col. Records, 1 678-1 689, pp. 504-506. 



245 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

Indians." Indeed, the duties devolving upon him by the 
change of government, in 1671, and the animosities which 
his "hfe" appointment aroused, kept him so fully occupied, 
as elsewhere told, that he must have been glad to leave the 
details of missionary work to others. In 1673, his grandson 
John had become pastor to the churches of Tisbury and Chil- 
mark united, and soon after began to preach to the natives as 
assistant to his grandfather. Matthew, who had received 
special training for the work, at the expense of the society, had 
completely turned his back on it, and was devoting himself to 
politics, an occupation more to his taste and for which he 
was pre-eminently fitted. 

The last days of the aged governor are thus described by 
Rev. Thomas Prince, who obtained his facts from Experience 
Mayhew : — 

Not long before his Death he had a very ill Turn, which his relatives 
thought would have carried him off; but he told them, The time was 
not yet come, and that he should not die with that Fit of Sickness: and 
as he said it accordingly proved, he recovering and preaching again several 
times. After this he told a Grandson of his, yet living, That the time of 
his Departure was near at hand; but he earnestly desired that God would 
give him one Opportunity more in publick to exhort the English of the 
Town where he lived, viz Edgartown, on the East End of the Island; 
which he had for some time been also obliged to teach, thro' the want 
of a regular Minister. GOD granting him his Desire, he taught them the 
following Sabbath and then took his affectionate Farewel of them: and 
falling ill that Evening, he assured his Friends, That his Sickness would 
now be to Death, and he was well contented therewith, being full of Days, 
and satisfied with Life, &c. He gave many excellent Counsels and Ex- 
hortations to all about him; his Reason and Memory not being at all 
impaired, as could be perceived. And he continued full of Faith and 
Comfort and holy Joy to the last.* His great Grandson, now the Rever- 
end Mr. Experience Mayhew, tells me, that when his Father went to 
visit the Governor, in his last Sickness he took his young Son with him, 
being then about eight Years old; and he well remembers his great 
Grandfather's calling him to his Bedside, and laying his Hands on his 
Head, and blessing him in the Name of the LORD.^ 

Matthew Mayhew, in announcing his grandfather's death 
to Governor Hinckley, of the Plymouth Colony, gives the fol- 

^The exact date of his death can be pretty closely fixed. He was alive March 24, 
1681-2, when he acknowledged a deed, and on March 28, following, his will was 
attested by a witness in court. In Experience Mayhew's "Indian Converts," p. 301, 
it is stated that he preached on the Sabbath before his death, and fell ill that same 
evening, and was sick six days. March 19 was Sunday in that year, and the six 
days of his illness would carry us to Saturday evening, March 25, 1682, which is the 
probable day of his death. 

^Indian Converts, 301. 

246 



The Missionary Mayhews 

lowing particulars of the last hours of the old missionary 
governor: — 

It pleased god of his great goodness, as to continue My honoured 
Grandfather's life to a great age, wanting but six dayes of ninety yeares:' 
so to give the comfort of his Hfe: and to ours as well as his comfort, in 
his sickness which was six dayes, to give him an increase of faith, and 
comfort, manifested by many expressions, one of which I may not omitt, 
being seasonable, as in all, so espetially in these times; viz: I have lived 
by faith, and have found god in his son ; and there I finde him now, there- 
fore if you would finde god looke for him in his son, there he is to be found, 
and no where else &c: he manifested great assurance of salvation; he 
was of low price in his own esteem, saying that he had been both unworthy 
and unprofitable, not deserving the esteem many had of him; and that 
he was only accepted in, and through the lord Jesus: &c.^ 

To this he adds his own estimate of him: "I think with- 
out detraction I may say no man ever in this land approved 
himself so absolute a father to the Indians as my honoured 
grandfather: I got no great hope that there will ever be the 
like in this selfish age." 

The exact location of the burial place of the governor is 
given in a document entered in the registry of deeds, as pre- 
pared by his direct descendant, William Mayhew of Edgar- 
town, Aug. 14, 1838. In this paper he says, after describing 
the "home lot" of the family: "Gov. Thomas Mayhew and 
his wife, according to the best of my knowledge were buried 
in the west corner of Grafton Norton's lot about ten feet from 
the street and a little to the north west of the graves that are 
now visible. I think there is a rock near the head of the graves 
of the said Thomas and his wife." In this same yard, on 
South Water street, there are several grave stones erected to 
members of the Mayhew family, and William Mayhew adds: 
"I believe the whole number to be eight." It is the house lot 
just north of the "Old Mayhew House." 

JOHN MAYHEW. 

John Mayhew, the youngest son of Thomas, Junior, born 
"in the beginning of 1652," succeeded to the work so long 
carried on by his grandfather, and was the third of his family 

'Subtracting ninety years less six days, his age as stated by Matthew, we are car- 
ried back to March 31, 1592, as the day of his birth, and allowing for his error of 
one year in his age, we have his birth falling on Saturday, March 31, 1593, the day 
prior to the record of baptism, as shown in the sketch of his family and early life in 
another portion of this history. 

^Prince Mss. (Hinckley Papers), I, No. 30, in Boston Public Libran'. 

247 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

to engage in it. He was just turned thirty years of age when 
he became the spiritual teacher of the native churches, but 
owing to his modest and retiring disposition, his connection 
with it has not been sufficiently established in the public knowl- 
edge. "But I can assure my Reader," says Prince, "that he 
fell not short either of the eminent Genius or Piety of his ex- 
cellent Progenitors.''^ His ministry among the Indians was 
generally successful, though it was marked by the appearance 
of a schism, due to the spread of the Antipedobaptist doc- 
trines. This gained considerable headway, and caused him 
much concern. "Mr. Mayhew was rightly for repelling them 
with spiritual Weapons," says Prince, "and being a Person of 
very Superior Abilities, and Acquaintance with the Scriptures, 
he used to desire such as began to imbibe those principles 
to produce their Reasons ; and those who wanted to be resolved 
in their Difficulties, to give him the Advantage to resolve them 
in publick, that others might also receive Light and Satisfac- 
tion; whereby they came to be more clearly instructed, and 
more fully convinced and satisfy'd, than in the ordinary Way 
of Preaching, which yet always preceded the other." It is 
stated that such was the power of his arguments against this 
new-fangled doctrine that the promoters "could make no 
Progress in their designs on the Island." However, this sect 
did succeed later in displacing the old orthodox religion of the 
Mayhews on Gay Head, as will be related in the history of 
that town. John Mayhew inherited the personal qualities of 
his father, in so far as his disregard of the temporal returns 
for his services. From 1682 to 1686 he was paid but ten pounds 
a year, "but after the honourable Commissioners came to be 
acquainted with him, and the eminent Service he did, they 
raised his Salary to thirty Pounds which was about two Years 
before his Death. "^ And yet, says Prince, "he went on chear- 
fully, in Hopes of a rich and joyful Harvest in Heaven^ He 
was destined to have but a short career, as in the latter part 
of September, 1688, he was taken with "an heavy Pain in his 
Stomach, Shortness of Breath, Faintness &c," and gradually 
grew worse until "he deceased on February 3, 1688-9, about 
two in the Morning, in the 37th Year of his Age, and the 

'"In the Island of Martha, which is about Twenty Two miles long, are two 
american Churches planted, which are more Famous than the rest, for that over one 
of them presides an Ancient Indian Minister, called Hiacooms: John Hiacooms, Son 
of the said Indian Minister, also Preaches the Gospel to his Countreymen in (Chappa- 
quiddick) Church: in that place John Tockinosh a Converted Indian Teaches." 
(Brief Relation of the State of New England, pub. London, 1689.) 

248 



The Missionary Mayhews 

1 6th of his Ministry; leaving the Indians in a very orderly 
Way of assembling on the Lord's Day for publick Worship in 
four or five several Places, and of hearing their several well 
instructed Teachers, who usually began with Prayer, and then 
after singing part of a Psalm, from some Portion of Scripture 
spake to the Auditors: as also an Indian Church, of one 
hundred Communicants, walking according to the Rule of 
Scriptures." ^ 

EXPERIENCE MAYHEW. 

The death of John Mayhew left a vacancy in the leader- 
ship of the Indian churches for several years. This loss com- 
ing so soon after the death of the old governor was the indirect 
cause of much demoralization in the religious element among the 
natives, as well as the introduction of the Antipedobaptist 
doctrines to confuse their minds. But another scion of this 
missionary family was rapidly growing up to take the crook 
dropped by the shepherds who had gone before him. This 
was Experience, eldest son of John Mayhew, born Jan. 27, 
1672-3, and sixteen years of age at the father's decease. "The 
Indian Language has been from his Infancy natural to him," 
says Prince, and with this essential basis for successful work 
among them, he was trained by his excellent father for the 
work of the ministry, particularly to the natives. He began to 
preach to them in March, 1693-4, about five years after the 
death of his father, and on October 26th of the same year 
was invited to "teach" the English church in Tisbury.^ 
Whether he complied with the latter call is not known, but it 
is certain that he devoted himself thereafter, with all his abili- 
ties, to the special work of instructing the natives in the Chris- 
tian religion. In some respects he is the giant of his name in 
this field of labor. Among his contemporaries he was so es- 
teemed. "Tho this Gentleman also unhappily missed of a 
learned Education in his younger days; yet by the signal 
blessing of God on his diligent Studies and Labours, he grew 
so conspicuously by that time he was about twenty five Years 
of Age, that the Rev. Dr. Cotton Mather, first in a Sermon 
printed at Boston 1698, and then reprinted in his Magnalia 
in London 1702, speaking of more than thirty Indian Assem- 
blies, and of more than thirty hundred Christian Indians then 

^Indian Converts, 305. 
'Tisbury Records, 25. 

249 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

in this Province, he adds, in the Margin the following Words^ 
'That an hopeful and worthy young Man, Mr. Experience 
Mayhew, must now have Justice done him of this Character, 
That in the Evangelical Service among the Indians there is 
no Man that exceeds this Mr. Mayhew, if there be any that 
equals him.' " The condition of the work under his control 
at this time will be interesting. The society in England de- 
sired a comprehensive report of the state of the missionary 
field to which it was contributing, and the commissioners ap- 
pointed Rev. Grindal Rawson, pastor of the church in Mendon, 
and Rev. Samuel Danforth, pastor of the church in Taunton, 
to make a visitation of the several Indian missions throughout 
the Province, and inspect the work done in each. The follow- 
ing is an abstract of so much of this report as relates to the 
island missions : — 

At Martha's Vineyard, viz. at Chilmark, alias Nashauekemmuk : 
here is an Indian church of which Japhet is pastor; a person of the great- 
est repute for sobriety and religion, and diligent in attending his minis- 
terial employment: unto whom is adjoined Abel, a ruling elder, who 
likewise preaches to a part of the church, living at too great a distance 
ordinarily to attend church administrations. In that place we find two 
hundred and thirty one persons, three score and four in full communion. 
Their children are well instructed, as we find by our examinations of them 
in their catechism. 

At Onkonkemme, within the bounds of Tisbury, are three score and 
twelve persons, unto whom Stephen and Daniel, who are brothers, are 
preachers; well reported of for their gifts and qualifications. Here we 
spent part of a Sabbath, and were joyful spectators of their Christian and 
decent carriage; the aforesaid Daniel praying and preaching not only 
affectionately but understandingly to them; unto whom we also imparted 
a word of exhortation in their own language, to their contentmnt and 
declared satisfaction. 

At Seconkgut, in aforesaid Chilmark, also, which belongs to the in- 
spection of aforesaid Stephen and Daniel, are thirty five persons, to whom 
for their greater ease, either the one or the other dispenses the word. 

At Gay-head, Abel and Elisha are preachers to at least two hundred 
and sixty souls; who have here at their charge a meeting house already 
framed. We find that the Indians here, as also may be affirmed of most 
of the Indians belonging to Martha's Vineyard, (Chaubaquedeck ex- 
cepted), are well instructed in reading, well clothed and most decently 
in English apparel. 

At Edgartown, viz. at Sahnchecontuckquet, are twenty five families, 
amounting to one hundred and thirty six persons; lob Russel is their 
minister (error for lob Peosin). 

At Nunnepoag about eighty four persons; loshua Tackquannash 
their minister, Josiah Thomas their schoolmaster. 

250 



Majjdchufee PSALTER : 
Uk-kuttoohoniaongafli 

DAVID 

Weche 
WUNT^AUNOHEMOOKAOT^fK 

Ne anfukhogup JOHN, 

Ut Indtana kah £n^lijhe 

Ne ^voKfogkoi-n-pagauukKettit 
Kal<oketa.kteaekuppax\negk, SLketatnunHit, 
kaK wokwoVitainunat "Wuimetupjjantam- 
we WaiTukwhongafh. 

John V. ip. 
^QiinneahntamcokWuffukwhonkana/i, neiouu 
che utyeufh kuttimnantamamiooQ Xuttahtom- 
lOQo rnicheme pomani ammooonk j kah iiijh 

Tiupo^ ■wauwao?iufcqueniJh. 

BOSTOU, N.E. 

Uppriiithowurvneau B. Green, kali J Pvintevy 

wulchc cjulitiaiuannve CHAPANUKKEG 

wutche oncliekeUtouunuaC wucniiaLmchuai- 

imodkdiQnk lit ?Teuj^ England S^c 1709. 



FAC-SIMILE TITLE PAGE OF THE MASSACHUSETTS 
PSAETER, OR PSAEMS OF DAVID 

By Experience Mayhew 



The Missionary Mayhews 

At Chaubaqueduck, about one hundred and thirty eight persons; 
Maumachegin preaches to them every Sabbath. Josiah, by birth, is their 
ruler or sachem/ 

This is the most comprehensive report we have had about 
the missions to the Indians, and gives us a detailed account 
of the several praying towns and the numbers in each. In a 
letter dated March 2, 1705, the Rev. Increase Mather wrote 
to Sir William Ashhurst, governor of the society, that Ex- 
perience Mayhew had reported "that there are about one 
hundred and four score families of Indians on that island; 
and that of these, there are no more than two persons which 
now remain in their paganism," adding the further informa- 
tion that "he is at this time, gathering another church of 
Indians, whereof he is himself to be the pastor."^ About this 
time. Rev. Josiah Torrey of Tisbury, who had learned the 
Indian tongue, began to preach to the Indians in that town 
in their language. Increase Mather called him "a hopeful 
young man." 

The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, under the 
advice- of Mayhew probably, and with the approval of the 
commissioners, took another step forward in the relations 
which existed with the natives, and began the plan of caring 
for their material welfare. It will be remembered that Matthew 
Mayhew had sold to Governor Dongan certain fees and privi- 
leges in 1685 on Gay Head, known as the Lordship and Manor 
of Martha's Vineyard. Dongan, who had been created Earl 
of Limerick, was in receipt of yearly tribute from the Indians 
for the occupancy of this land, and the friends of the natives 
considered that the indefinite continuance of this tenantry 
system would reduce the Indians to a state of indolence and 
hopelessness. It was seen that without any interest in the 
soil they cultivated they had become shiftless, sinking deeper 
and deeper into poverty, and were becoming thereby an easy 
prey to vicious habits. As a result of negotiations with the 
owner, the society, on May 10, 1711, bought of him all his 
vested interests, Noman's Land excepted, for the sum of 
;^55o, and the title of Lord of the Manor passed from Lord 

'Records, New England Company, 82. Two years later, the following persons 
were receiving compensation for preaching to the Indians here: John Weeks, at the 
Elizabeth Islands, £10-0-0; Experience Mayhew, ;£35-o-o; Japheth, Indian Pastor 
of an Indian church at Martin's Vineyard, ;£20-o-o. (N. Y. Col. Documents, IV, 
755.) This was in 1700. 

^Records, New England Company, 84, 86. It is believed that this was a church 
in Christiantown. 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

Dongan to the corporation. Sir William Ashhurst, the gov- 
ernor of the society, says in a letter: "I hope it will be the 
means to make the Indians live comfortably upon it, and 
prevent their scattering abroad, which would certainly have 
brought their offspring back again to their old idolatry." ^ This 
plan ensured a landlord in sympathy with their needs. 

It will not be practicable to follow the yearly work of this 
missionary, for his services cover too long a period, but for 
the purposes of obtaining a view of the conditions about the 
middle of his pastorate the following account, given by him 
to the Rev. Cotton Mather, in 1720, is of interest. After 
stating that there were sLx small villages of natives on the is- 
land, containing about 155 families, to the number of about 
eight hundred persons, he proceeds : — 

Each of these villages is provided with an Indian Preacher to dis- 
pense the Word to them on the Lord's Days, when I am not with them. 
They meet for the Worship of God twice a Day on the Sabbath, and after 
Prayer sing a Psalm; then there is a Sermon Preached on some portion 
of Scripture, which being ended, they sing again, while the Days be of 
sufficient length; and then conclude with Prayer 

There is also care taken to Catechise the Youth; for besides what is 
done in this kind, by the Indian School-Masters & Preachers, I frequently 
examine the Young People myself, and have determined to attend this 
Service once a Fortnight, in some or other of the fore-mentioned Villages; 
and this Method will, I hope, prove very advantageous; and many grown 
People as well as Children, attending these Exercises. 

Having now Preached to the Indians upwards of 25 Years, I have 
never yet had any special charge of any one single Congregation com- 
mitted to me; but have visited the several fore-mentioned Assemblies 
alternately, as I thought necessary; Preaching ordinarily unto some or 
other of them every Lord's Day, and on working days once a Fortnight; 
constantly also attending their Church-Meetings, to assist and direct them. 

After referring to the aid rendered to him by the Rev. 
Josiah Torrey, he adds: "The Rev. Mr. Samuel Wiswall 
Pastor of the Church in Edgartown, has now almost learned 
the Indian Tongue, with a design to do what Service he can 
among that people."^ 

The period represented by the pastorate of Rev. Experience 
Mayhew was noted not only its for length but for the high 
character of the work done by him in the development of 
native missionary talent. It was the longest service rendered 

'Records, New England Company, 94-6. Livery and Seizin was not given until 
Oct. 6, 1712. (Sewall, Letter Book, I, 422.) 
^Mather, "India Christiana" (1721). 

252 



The Missionary Mayhews 

by any of his name, and during it he had acquired a reputa- 
tion of international proportions. He brought to it the zeal 
and industry of a mind in sympathy with his calling, and next 
to Eliot is classed at the most profound scholar in the Algon- 
quian tongue. His published works in the native language 
are as follows : — 

I. Ne Kesukod Jehovah Kessehtunkup &c. [The day which the 
Lord hath made.l A discourse concerning the institution and observation 
of the Lord's-day, etc. Boston, 1707. 

II. Massachusee psalter: asuh. Ukkuttoohomaongash David etc. 
[The Massachusetts psalter: or Psalms of David, etc.] Boston, 1709.^ 

III. It is probable that the Indiane primer of 1720 and 1747 was 
revised by him. 

His masterpiece, " Indian Converts," will be referred 
to in another place. It was dedicated "to the Honourable 
William Thompson, Esq., Governour, and To the rest of the 
Honourable Company for the Propagation of the Gospel in 
New England, and Parts adjacent in America." 

Although he was not a college-bred man, yet 'such was 
the ''Extraordinary Progress" he made in learning, that he 
was frequently offered the Degree of Master of Arts by Har- 
vard College, but he "was pleased to excuse himself from the 
Honour." However, the college later prevailed upon him 
"to over-rule his Modesty," and the degree was conferred 
upon him at the Commencement on July 3, 1723, "to the 
Approbation of all that know him," says Prince. 

That the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel ap- 
preciated his value is well indicated by his long service in 
their employ, extending from 1694 to 1758, a period of sixty- 
four years, but their financial support was not always constant 
nor adequate. In 1730 he petitioned the General Court for 
a grant of land as a recompense for his "Labours & Services 
in converting the Indians to Christianity & the Disadvantages 
to his own private Estate." The court ordered an allotment 
of two hundred acres, one mile to the eastward of the great 
Wachusett Hill.^ Again in 1739, he was in financial straits 
and in another petition to the General Court represented 
that he had "been obliged to spend of his own Estate about 

'Sewall says Mayhew was printing this book on Jan. i, 1710-11, a discrepancy 
in dates. (Diar>', II, 295-6.) See Indian Converts, p. 307, where 1709 is given, 
with a statement that he was also employed in translating the Gospel of John. 

^Province Laws (1730), Vol. XI, C. 172. This was the Blue Hill m Milton. 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

Sixteen Hundred Pounds for the necessary support of himself 
and his Family notwithstanding his utmost care to preserve 
the same, by his living as frugally, as with any discovery he 
could do ; His annual Salary being no more than an Hundred 
Pounds. Not that till within a few years last past, besides 
Twenty pound p anno lately allowed him, on account of his 
extraordinary Expenses in Entertaining the Indian Ministers 
and others on necessary occasions, resorting to his House and 
frequently lodging there .... insomuch that he has already 
been obliged to sell of his own Lands to the value of Six Hun- 
dred Pounds, besides Two Hundred Acres, formerly Granted 
to him." The General Court again came to his rescue and 
gave him a grant of six hundred acres in Hampshire County, 
and an annual allowance of £t,o, old tenor, for the space of 
five years. ^ 

Like his forefathers he began the training of one of his 
sons to follow in his footsteps, and thus perpetuate the suc- 
cession of ministry to the Indians in the family name. Ac- 
cordingly Nathan, born in 171 2, was sent to Harvard College 
in 1727, where he graduated in the class of 1731, but the young 
man died two years later, and all hopes were then centred 
on his youngest born sons, Zachariah and Jonathan. The 
latter did, indeed, take a college course, being made a 
Bachelor of Arts in 1744 at Harvard, but this brilliant young 
man desired a wider field for his talents, and accepted in 
1746 a call to the famous West Church in Boston. This left 
Zachariah to assume the reins, but he had not been in prepara- 
tion for it, and at the decease of the father, full of years and 
honor, on Nov. 29, 1758, there was no one ready to fill the 
place. In the cemetery on Abel's Hill, in Chilmark, lie the 
mortal remains of this remarkable man, the scion of a famous 
ancestry, and the progenitor of one of the most famous pulpit 
orators of the pre-Revolutionary period. 

ZACHARIAH MAYHEW. 

It devolved upon Zachariah Mayhew, who was forty 
years old at his father's death, to become the fifth missionary 
in successive generations, and after some time spent in de- 
ciding upon the matter, he concluded to take up the work, 
and in 1767, nine years after the death of Experience, he was 

'Mass. Archives, XII, 104-108. The land was laid out in 1741. 



The Missionary Mayhews 

ordained a preacher of the gospel to the Indians. When he 
took charge of the work, it was a different sort of a j5eld from 
that plowed and cultivated by his ancestors. There were 
scarce three hundred Indians in the whole county by this 
time, two-thirds of whom resided in Chilmark and Gay Head. 
When he began his labors there were four societies engaged 
in the task of supporting missionary work among the natives 
of America, three belonging to Great Britain, one of which 
was of Scottish incorporation. The original society con- 
tinued to support the Vineyard minister until towards the 
period of the Revolution, when the political agitations caused 
a withdrawal of funds and a lessening of interest in the subject. 
Rev. Jonathan Mayhew, in 1762, tried to secure the incorpora- 
tion of a local society expressly for "propagating Christian 
Knowledge among the Indians of North America," but George 
the Third would not grant the necessary approval. This 
benevolent intent was frustrated, probably, for both religious 
and political reasons, as one of the four societies was main- 
taining a number of Episcopal churches in New England out 
of its missionary funds, the society chartered in 1 707 by William 
III, to establish missions of the established church. This 
last-named organization was the object of great opposition 
among the Puritan element and many controversies grew out 
of its operations.^ This, together with the attitude of the 
people of New England towards the crown tended further to 
alienate patronage; and Rev. Mr. Mayhew, in June, 1776, 
petitioned the General Court for relief from taxation, as he 
had been "long since deprived of remittances from England 

'This society was attacked in a pamphlet prepared by Jonathan Mayhew, pub- 
lished in 1763, in which he essays to show the "nonconformity" of the conduct of its 
officers with the chartered requirements. The society, he says, has probably "ex- 
pended 42,400 pounds sterling in New England," and by this means "might have 
maintained forty or fifty missions among the heathen for over thirty years past." 
The Indians on the Vineyard were already cared for; but Dr. Mayhew urges particu- 
larly the opportunities which had existed "for half a century past" among the Six 
Nations of New York, saying, "The chiefs have even petitioned for missionaries 
repeatedly through the governor of New York sending their petitions to this society." 
Only one missionary had been sent in response, Dr. Barclay, to the Mohawks, a 
little west of Albany, from 1735 to 1740; but his brief labors had been too feebly 
supported by the society to be of much avail. Mr. Apthorp, the Cambridge rector, 
himself saying, "Indian conversions are undertaken by our society incidentally and, 
as it were, ex abundanti." Had the society directed its energy to this work instead 
of planting churches in the towns already so supplied, says Dr. Mayhew, it would 
not only have furthered the good of the Indians, but "by converting these Indians, 
from New England to Florida, on the back of our settlements, important political 
results would have been gained. It would have had a direct and manifest tendency 
to attach them to the British interest. The more to counteract the designs of the 
French, till of late our most dangerous enemies on this continent." 



255 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

from a charitable fund" for his support/ How long this had 
ceased is not known, but we may assume as early as 1770, 
the time of the Boston Massacre. Mr. Mayhew continued 
his labors, however, throughout the war period, with what 
support he could procure from the religious and charitable 
societies. For a period of eleven years after 1775, when hos- 
tilities broke out, the old "New England Company" made no 
contributions whatever for the missionary work in this region, 
but in 1786 diverted its revenues to New Brunswick. In 
1794 another society with similar objects was contributing to 
the support of Rev. Mr. Mayhew and Rev. Joseph Thaxter 
for services as missionaries.^ By this time, through inter- 
marriage with negroes, the native population had increased to 
440, of whom the larger part lived at Gay Head, and the work 
was not lessening as far as numbers were involved. Zachariah 
continued this work until his death, which occurred on March 6, 
1806, in the eighty-eighth year of his age and the thirty-ninth 
of his ministry.^ He was the last of his name to pursue this 
unique vocation, which had been a family distinction for one 
hundred and sixty-three years, a record practically unpar- 
alleled in the history of our country. 

His successor was the Rev. Frederick Baylies, son of 
Frederick Baylies of Taunton, Mass., where he was born in 
1774, and about 1810 came to this island to take up the 
missionary work. Of him a contemporary visitor records the 
following opinion: "He was a true-hearted man and highly 
useful in the sphere allotted to him. He labored diligently 
among them for some twenty-five years. The first time I 
visited the Island he was hale and vigorous, devoted to his 
work and much interested in the furtherance of liberal views 
of Christianity. His salary was about 550 dollars, a portion 
of which he expended for the support of Teachers among the 
Indians on the Vineyard, Nantucket, and Cape Cod. Under 
his instruction and preaching the Indians have a good deal 
improved."^ Mr. Baylies died suddenly on a canal boat, 

'He was joined in this petition by Rev. Gideon Hawley, missionary to the Mashpee 
Indians. The request was granted. 

'Brief account of the Society for Propogating the Gospel among the Indians and 
others in North America, 1798. This society was incorporated in 1787, and was 
known as the S. P. G. The other was called the S. P. C. K. Several "small schools 
for Indian children" on the Vineyard were also maintained by this society. 

^Hallock, "The Venerable Mayhews," etc., p. 61. 

^Devens, " Sketches of Martha's Vineyard," 28. Mr. Baylies became much inter- 
ested in the history and genealogy of the island and its people, and left numerous 
papers on the subject, some of which have been of use to the author of this work. 

256 




REV. FREDERICK BAYLIES 

1774-1836 

MISSIONARY TO THE INDIANS 



The Missionary Mayhews 

while traveling in New York State, Sept. 30, 1836, having an 
apoplectic stroke, in the sixty-third year of his age. 

Since the death of Mr. Baylies there has been no regular 
missionary to the Indians of the Vineyard. The Society for 
Propagating the Gospel Among the Indians and Others in 
North America has intermittently made donations to the 
church at Gay Head, and owns the present church and par- 
sonage. The annual gift to the mission is $150, and has been 
continued for the past twenty years. 

The religious faith of the worshippers, however, is Bap- 
tist, and the clergyman in charge is of that faith. For this 
reason the mission has received annually from the Massachu- 
setts Baptist Missionary Society a grant of $100 for the sup- 
port of the minister.^ The present missionary is the Rev. 
W. H. Whitman, and regular services are maintained under 
his supervision. 

'The society, since its first contribution in 1855, has given a total of S3910.S4 
to the Gay Head mission. 



257 



History of Martha's Vineyard 



CHAPTER XX. 

County of Dukes County. 
organization and jurisdiction. 

On the first day of November, 1683, the Provincial As- 
sembly of New York divided the province into several counties 
and incorporated them by name, including Kings (now Brook- 
lyn), Queens (Long Island), and Dukes, the last being decreed 
to "conteine the Islands of Nantuckett, Martin's Vineyard, 
Elizabeth Island, and Noe Man's Land."^ 

Laws were made at the same time, regulating the times 
of holding courts; but "Dukes County was referred to the 
Governeur and Counsell." The following also was then 
passed: "And forasmuch as there is a necessity of a high 
sheriffe in every county thro' the Province, Be it enacted by 
the Governor, Counsell, and Representatives in General As- 
sembly met, and by the authority of the same, that there shall 
bee, yearly, and every year, a High Sheriffe constituted and 
commissionated for each county; and that each Sheriffe may 
have his under-sheriffe, deputy or deputies." 

The effect of these laws was to combine the separate 
jurisdictions of the Vineyard and Nantucket and to add 
another office or two to the civil list, which was promptly filled 
by Matthew Mayhew, who seemed to feel that nothing was 
too small for his attention from chief magistrate down to 
register of deeds. Nantucket heretofore had been conducting 
its own affairs under a local autonomy subject to a certain 
suzerainty of the Mayhew proprietary government, while the 
outlying Elizabeth Islands with Noman's Land were under the 
jurisdiction of the Lord of Tisbury Manor. The county now 
being organized the officials met at Nantucket and passed the 
following order respecting the courts on Sept. 21, 1686: — 

Its ordered by the Court that henceforward the Court shall be held 
the last Tuesday in May at Nantucket, and the last Tuesday in September 
at Mathews Vinard. 

Sept. 21, 1686, The Court is adjourned to this day senit or till Mr. 
Mayhew come.^ 

IN. Y. Col. Mss., Vol. XXXI. 

'Nantucket Records, II, 38. "Senit" is an abbreviation of Sennight, or seven 
nights, meaning a week. 



County of Dukes County 

This county organization continued to exist as outlined 
during the few remaining years of its connection with the 
province of New York, until by the charter of William and 
Mary it became on Oct. 7, 1691, a constituent county of the 
Massachusetts Bay Colony. 

At the time of the incorporation of Dukes County there 
were only four counties in Massachusetts, namely: Essex, 
Middlesex, and Suffolk, which were each incorporated May 10, 
1643, and Hampshire, May 7, 1662. Next came Barnstable 
and Plymouth, June 2, 1685, followed by Bristol on June 21, 
1685. 

The people of Nantucket did not desire to have further 
connection with Martha's Vineyard, after the separation from 
New York, and wished to dissolve the county organization 
and become a separate county by themselves. Requests for 
this arrangement were made to the General Court of Massachu- 
setts in 1694, by the leading men of Nantucket. The follow- 
ing communication from Matthew Mayhew, acting for the 
governor and council, to the petitioners shows the progress of 
the matter at that date : — 

Mart: Vineyard Sept'r: 28: 1694 
Gent. 

on motion to the Governor and Counsell of the province of the INIassa- 
chusetts Bay in New England intimating the present state of that part 
thereof formerly Dukes County, through some misinformation, to be 
abridged of the libertie of subjects to the Crown of England the further 
consideration is remitted till your selves appear at Boston there to them 
render your reason for your lurgent desier of your seperation out of s'd 
County, my self being desired to give you notice that his Excellency Sr 
William Phips in Councill will hear the same in their Convention begin- 
ning tusday the 16 of October next when it will bee expected you should 
therefore render your reasons therefore. I am gentl. 

Your humble servant 

MATTHEW MAYHEW 
To the worship: 

John Gardner James Cofl&n & William Geyer Esqrs 
on Nantuckett. 

"If I may adventur," wrote Simon Athearn to the General 
Court on March 12, 1694-5, "to shew my opinion concerning 
marthas vineyard & Nantucket being a County as when under 
York — It will be uneasy to the Inhabitants, and disturb 
peace and Trad, But it will be most easy for each Island to 
keepe their particular sessions at home & in case of appeale 
to sum supearior Court: Besides it will be a province Charge 

259 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

to heire a vessel one a year to Carry the Justices of the Su- 
pearior Court to Marthas Vineyard or Nantucket."^ 

This susfofestion was effective. Nantucket continued to 
be a part of Dukes County until the seventh year of the reign 
of William III. On the 29th of May, 1695, the following act 
was passed by the General Court of Massachusetts: — 

An Act for the Better Settlement of the Islands of Marth.4's 
Vineyard, and Islands Adjacent. 

Be it enacted by the Lieutenant Governour, Council, and Representatives 
convened in General Co7irt, or Assembly, and by the authority of the same: 
That the Islands of Martha's Vineyard, Elisabeth Islands, the Islands 
called Nomans-Land, and all the Dependencies formerly belonging to 
Dukes County, (the Island of Nantuckett only excepted) shall be, remain 
and continue to be One County, to all intents and purposes; by the name 
of Dukes County: 

It was further provided that appeal of cases should be 
to the Superior Court at Plymouth and jurors be summoned 
from both counties. There was also a provision for 

The Island of Nantuckett to remain and continue under the same 
Form of Government as is already there settled: And Appeals from the 
ludgments given or to be given in the Inferiour Court of Pleas within the 
said Island, to be heard and tryed in the Superior Court of Judicature 
to be held at Boston within the County of Suffolk, as is by law provided.^ 

Whether intended or not this statute created a county 
"by the name of Dukes County" instead of "Dukes," and in 
consequence all legal phraseology used in connection therewith 
hag always read " County of Dukes County" and it so continues 
down to the present day.^ 

This reduction of the limits of the county to Martha's 
Vineyard alone was not entirely satisfactory to the people of 
this island, as it threw the management of affairs back into 
the family "ring," and the old agitation began once more. 
Simon Athearn again wrote a letter to the Speaker of the House 
of Representatives, Mr. James Converse, June 23, 1699, in 
which he voices the sentiment of the opposition : — 

Wee in our discors, by the way, have thought it well that duks County 
was annext to barnstabl County, only it would increst a perpetuall Charg. 

^Mass. Col. Archives, CXIII, iii. 

^Province Laws, Vol. I, c. 7, Act of May 29, 1695. 

^The words "County of Dukes County" are used in the Land Records, viz: — the 
first time in Vol. I, p. 160, Feb. 24, 1702; Vol. II, p. 3, Oct. 29, 1703; Vol. II, p. 238, 
Mar. 20, 1706; Vol. IV, p. 273, Oct. 2, 1707, and Vol. II, p. 160, Mar. 3, 1707-8. 

260 



County of Dukes County 

But duks County want able Larned men to Ingaig such a subtell 
serpent who is headgd about with so many relations thats its thought 
theres scarse a Jury to be found to try suit against him or his '■ 

As the EUiment of fier would have all tier so have Major Mayhew 
and his have used all means to have all Rule in his house except a Cifer 
to make the summ. Its probable being annext to Barnstabl County may 
be a remedy.^ 

Athearn further said that he had thought of preferring a 
petition "in Consideration of these and other things," but it 
does not appear that this was done. Matters did not improve, 
but the atmosphere was different under Massachusetts rule 
from the old New York oligarchy. 

This changed political condition encouraged the oppo- 
nents of the existing official family, which had gradually re- 
gained its power, to further efforts to shake off the continued 
yoke of family judges on the bench. Of the four justices at 
this tim.e three were Mayhews (with Richard Sarson), and the 
minority member was James Allen of Chilmark. Under the 
lead of Simon Athearn of Tisbury, in all probability, the fol- 
lowing vote was passed in that town in 1701, to influence the 
sentiment for the termination of this condition : — 

October 2d: 1701 it is voted by the maiger part of of the freeholders 
at a Leagall town meeting that Tisbury do pettion to the General Court 
that Dukes County may be anext to the County of barnstable with . . . 
not to attend the Courts Except nessasary ocation ariseth from amongst 
us and that the Register of Lands of the Island be kept on marthas vin- 
yerd.^ 

Nothing came of this however, but it was the early begin- 
ning of a long struggle, continuing for nearly two centuries, 
to remove the courts from Edgartown, and to keep them at 
that time from family management and influence. 

From this time until the year 171 7, Nantucket Island 
alone constituted Nantucket County, In that year it was 

Ordered, that Tuckanuck is .... to be accounted a part of Nantucket 
.... and the Justices and all other officers of Dukes County are com- 
manded to take notice of this Resolve. This was the result of repeated 
efforts asking for annexation.* 

'This refers to Matthew Mayhew. 

^Sup. Jud. Court Files, No. 4605. (8) 

^Tisbury Records, p. 43. 

*June 5, 1711, James Coffin, Tristram Coffin, and others, petitioned the General 
Court that Tuckanuck be annexed to Nantucket County. — (Mass. Archives, Vol. 
XXXI, page S5.) Later on, June 6, 1713, James Coffin, of Nantucket, petitioned 
the General Court "that Tuckanug be annexed to Nantucket township." — (Nan- 
tucket Records, Vol. I, page 79.) 

261 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

These were not the only attempts of the people to enlarge 
their county bounds. At a legal town meeting of the town of 
Sherborne, on Nantucket, June 6, 1771, 

Voted, That a petition be preferred to the General Court to desire 
and request that the islands of Muskekit and Gravelly Island me be an- 
nexed to this County. 

Voted, That Abishai Folger, Esq., Zaccheus Macy, Frederick Folger, 
Josiah Barker, and Timothy Folger, in conjunction with the Selectmen 
of the town, be a committee, in behalf of the town, to draw up said peti- 
tion, and send the same to the General Court. 

At a town meeting in Edgartown, Sept. 4, lyyi, it was 

Voted, That an answer should be made to a petition put into the 
General Court, by the town of Sherborne relative to the Island of Mos- 
kekett and the Gravelly Islands adjacent. 

Voted, That there should be a committee chosen consisting of five 
men: and Voted, That John Norton, Esqr., Mr. John Pease, Jr., Mr. 
William Jernegan, Mr. Beriah Norton, and Mr. Ebenezer Smith, Jr., be a 
committee to make answer to the said petition. 

Voted, That Enoch Coffin and John Worth, Esqr., be added to this 
committee.^ 

At a town meeting in Sherborne on the Island of Nan- 
tucket, Sept. II, 1 771, 

Voted, That a remonstrance be sent to the Governor to lay the state 
of inoculation before him in a true light, and to desire him to sign a bill 
to annex Muskeket and Gravelly Islands to this County, by a majority of 
114 voices against 4. 

A committee was chosen to prepare and present it. 

The petition of Abishai Folger and others was presented 
in July, 1 7 71. A bill passed both branches making the an- 
nexation prayed for, but the governor refused his assent. In 
other words, using the language of these latter days, he vetoed 
it. 

On Oct. 19, 1805, the town of Chilmark, at a special 
meeting, voted that a committee of three persons, Benjamin 
Bassett, Matthew Mayhew, and Allen Mayhew, be authorized 
to petition the General Court ''to alter the name of Dukes 
County to that of Mayhew."^ It is not known whether this 
was expressive of any general sentiment among the people of 
the Vineyard, but it may be assumed to the contrary as no 
other town took similar action, and there is no further record 
of this in the archives of the Commonwealth. 

^Edgartown Records, I, 295. 
-Town Records, Chilmark, loc. cit. 

262 



County of Dukes County 

EARLY JUDICIAL AFFAIRS OF THE COUNTY. 

The organization of an Anglo-Saxon community is incom- 
plete without definite provisions for the administration of 
justice between man and man and for the application of laws 
for the protection of the community by wise and honorable 
men. That such machinery was established on the Vineyard 
early must be accepted as a fact, without the recourse to our 
records which are silent on the subject for a decade after the 
settlers came hither. The first suit at law was heard in Decem- 
ber, 1652, but before w^hom does not appear, but the next entry 
states that "the town hath ended the case between John Pease 
and Edward Sales," and from this we may suppose that it 
was a sort of neighbor's court which settled differences between 
the townsmen.^ It will be remembered that their number was 
few, and probably did not exceed by many an ordinary jury of 
adult males at that period. Doubtless these improvised 
"courts" were presided over by Thomas Mayhew, Senior, as 
patentee. Early in 1654 a "Verdict of the Court " is mentioned, 
and on June 6, that same year, seven men were chosen "to 
end all controversy, except member. Life, and Banishment, 
and to keep a meeting quarterly namely four times in a year." 

A further provision was made "that Mr. Mayhew senior 
shall have power in his hands to end any debt or controversy 
to the order of five shillings between any in this town."" In 
1655 a chief magistrate and four assistants wxre chosen "to 
attend all Controversies that shall arise in the town," and 
determine them at quarterly courts held on the last Tuesdays 
of March, June, September, and December. If they could 
not arrive at a unanimous decision, "then such cases are to be 
referred to the town to end ; that is such as are admitted to be 
townsmen."^ Each magistrate could settle a case involving 
five shillings or under. In 1656 the number of assistants was 
further reduced to two, with Thomas Mayhew still continuing 
as presiding justice. In 1659 a case is entered where two 
arbitrators were chosen by each side, "and those four persons 
have liberty to choose an umpire to end the case in case they 
cannot agree. "^ It will thus be seen that the early court pro- 
ceedings were of the simplest kind, beginning with a sort of 

^Edgartown Records, I, 149. 
'Ibid., I, 122. 
^Ibid., I, 137. 
%id., I, 142. 

263 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

neighborhood jury or town meeting, wherein all had a voice 
in deciding between litigants, and gradually adopting the forms 
which obtained in other communities. The following rule in 
relation to the sessions of the General Court were adopted in 
1660: — 

The time of meeting att Court is at Nine of the Clock in the morning 
and all meetings are to continue till they are Disolved by the major part 
of the freemen. The fine for not coming in season is lad. and for going 
away before the meeting is Dissolved.^ 

In March, 1658, we find the first reference to a trial by 
jury on the town records of Edgartown, fifteen years after 
the settlement of the island, as follows : — 

It is ordered by the town that all cases are to be ended this present 
year by the magistrate with an original jury which shall be chosen by the 
town consisting of such a number as the town shall judge needful for the 
end of dll such cases as shall be presented to be judged and determined: 
that is to say all cases within the compass of life members and banish- 
ment: and this jury is to be chosen at the town meeting which are to be 
four times a year according to the formei" order by the major part of the 
freemen. 

Moreover in all cases which shall exceed the value of five pounds 
being first here ended and the Plaintiff or Defendant remaining unsatisfied 
either of them have liberty to redress himself by an appeal to (a) bigger 
Court and that the estate of him which maketh the appeal shall stand 
bound to answer all of the charges which shall be occasioned by the re- 
moval of the suit if he be cast in the suit.^ 

What was meant by a "bigger court" is not clear, whether 
a larger jury or a court in the Province of Maine, to which it 
was possible to appeal under the proprietary rights of Gorges, 
may be left to our surmises. It is, however, of record that in 
1662 a case was heard by the Plymouth Courts which was 
certainly "bigger" than the Vineyard Court, but its jurisdic- 
tion was only by courtesy of a reference. As it was a suit in 
which Thomas Mayhew was personally interested and involved, 
the Plymouth justices were requested to hear it "by joynt con- 
sent of both partyes."' 

In 1663 there is a record of a verdict "assented unto by 
Thomas Mayhew," possibly as presiding justice, or in his as- 

^Edgartown Records, I, 147. 

^Ibid., I, 157. 

^Plymouth Col. Rec, IV, 27; VII, 104. The case was John Daggett versus "the 
towne of the said Vineyard." In 1669 Richard Sarson entered suit at Plymouth against 
Nicholas Butler for killing a steer that belonged to the widow of Thomas Mayhew, Jr. 
"The jury saied to this action non liquet." (Ibid.) Nantucket cases were also tried at 
Plymouth. 

264 



County of Dukes County 

sumption of greater powers under his patent. In the same 
year there is reference to "the small court" and "the monthly 
court," which perhaps may mean sessions held by one magis- 
trate. The jurors by a vote passed in 1664, were to be paid 
"six pence a fee for every action," equal to about half a dollar 
of our currency in relative value. In 1665, as elsewhere told, 
the elder Mayhew appealed a case, which went against him, 
"unto the Cheif & high Court and Counsell of the Province 
of Mayne," but it is doubtful if the appeal was ever accom- 
plished. In 1669 is another reference to a "small court holden," 
which implies, of course, a "large court;" and of this we have 
one glimpse indicating an organized bench sitting as a general 
court in 1670, with Thomas Daggett as clerk. How long it 
had been established as such does not appear, but on Aug. 3, 
1670, it sat to hear a suit for divorce, James Skiff vs. Eliza- 
beth Skiff, on a charge of desertion, and the plaintiff was 
awarded the verdict. The proceedings of this "General 
Court" were certified by Daggett in his capacity as "Clarke 
to the Court att the Vineyard."^ All these courts had only 
the status of common acceptance, as the Vineyard was without 
any jurisdiction, practically, and had no charter or authorized 
agencies to carry on legal measures. When the Duke of York 
assumed control order came out of this chaos. 

The Fort James Conference of July 6-12, 1671, made 
definite provisions for the organization of a judicial system. 
It was enacted by the Governor and Council of New York 
"that for Tryall and Decision of all Dift'erences of Debt or 
Damage to the Vallue of Five Pounds, they shall have a Court 
in their Island wxh shall bee composed of the Governor there 
who shall have a double vote and three Assistants to be Elected 
annually by the Inhabitants of the two Townes and Plantacons 
upon the Island, from whose Judgment in any case to the Sume 
of Five Pounds or under noe appeale shall be admitted." 
In all actions and cases over five pounds and under fifty pounds 
hearing was to be had "at the General Court to bee held by 
them and their Neighbours of Nantuckett, that is to say by 
the Governor or Chiefe Magistrate of Martin's Vineyard and 
the first two elected of the three Assistants aforesaid, and by 
the Chiefe Magistrate of Nantucket and his two Assistants." 
Governor Mayhew was designated as president of the court as 
long as he lived, with a double or casting vote. The first ses- 
sion of the court was ordered to be held at "the Island INIartin 

^Plymouth Col. Records, V, 33. 

265 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

Vineyard at some convenient Time to bee agreed upon" with 
the people of Nantucket/ This was finally arranged between 
them, but not until the mid-summer of the next year, and on 
June 1 8, 1 67 1, the new "general court" held its first session 
at Edgartown, under the presidency of the Worshipful Thomas 
Mayhew. By them it was ordered that they should meet an- 
nually "either upon the first Tuesday in June or upon the first 
convenient Opportunity in respect of Weather." The pre- 
siding justice was allowed six shillings per diem, and each 
magistrate four shillings for attendance upon the general court, 
and three shillings and two shillings and six pence, respectively, 
for service at the quarter courts. These local petty courts 
were to be held on the last Tuesdays of March, June, Septem- 
ber, and December, for the trial of minor actions of the limit 
prescribed above, without appeal, and in cases involving the 
value of five pounds and over, appeal could be taken to the 
general court constituted of the justices of the two islands. 
This first general court provided a code of laws for the prose- 
cution of actions and appeals; the modes of attachments, 
arrests, and imprisonments for debts, subpoenas, contempt of 
court, pay of jurors, duties of constables, costs of court, and 
as a final clause ordered "that in all Actional and Criminal 
Matters and Cases which fall not under the Head of some of 
these Laws already made shall be tryed and Judgment or Sen- 
tence given according to the Laws of England."^ This in 
effect based procedure upon the particular laws enacted by the 
court, the province laws, or the common law of England, a 
condition which gave rise to much complaint. "Our condi- 
tion is such," said Simon Athearn, "the authority took sum 
laws out of boston & plimmouth Law books to be our law, 
and made a law that if any Case com to tryell which this law 
doth not reach it should be tryed by the law of boston or the 
law of England : the law of England non of us know : the law 
of boston rejected as not the dukes law."^ 

It is not known with certainty who constituted the full 
court at the first session, but it can be said with some degree 
of assurance that besides the Governor, James Allen, Richard 
Sarson, and probably Thomas Daggett were the assistants, 

IN. Y. Col. Mss. (Deeds), III, 75. 

2N. Y. Col. Mss. (Deeds), III, 78. 

^Ibid., XXIV, 159. In addition to the laws for the disposition of legal matters, 
other general laws were passed. One of these related to the excise, liquor selling, the 
licensing of public houses, and sale of strong drink to the Indians, another to weights and 
measures, and another to estates of deceased persons. 

266 



County of Dukes County 

elected under the provisions of the act passed by the Governor 
and Council of New York, to represent the two towns. From 
this time forth the judicial "system" of the Vineyard became 
such in fact as well as in name. This court exercised both 
civil and criminal jurisdiction as a court of common pleas and 
sessions of the peace. It settled admiralty cases as well, and 
its functions were of the widest latitude characteristic of 
frontier administrations. 

When Dukes County was created in 1683, the regulation 
of the time for holding courts here was referred to the governor 
and council, as previously stated. Six months after the pas- 
sage of the bill, the follovv^ing order in council was made to 
cover this detail : — 

WHEREAS by an act of generall assembly Entitled an act to settle 
Courts of Justice made the tirst day of November: 1683-4, the times & place 
for the holding of the Courts of Sessions in Dukes County is Referred to 
the Governour & Councill, I have therefore Thought fitt to Constitute & 
appointe that yearly & Every yeare there shall be twice or more if occa- 
sion shall require a court held at such time & places as shall bee thought 
fitt & Convenient by ... . Matthew Mayhue Esqre: Chief Magistrate & 
Justice of the peace of Martiens Vinyard Mr: Richard Sarson Thomas 
Dogget Mr: Thomas Mayhew Esqres & Justices of the peace of the said 
Martins Vinyard Giving them full power & Authority to keep the said 
Court of sessions untill further Order According to Law & for so Doeing 
this shall bee your sufficient warant. 

Dated at fort James the 9th: of June 1684.^ 

In 1692, when the new government of the Province of the 
Massachusetts Bay began to legislate for its recent acquisition, 
Martha's Vineyard, the courts of our island had been organized 
on a definite authoritative basis for twenty years, and during 
all that time they had been in the control of the Mayhew 
family. On Nov. 25, 1692, the general court passed an act 
establishing courts of justice and provided therein that "there 
be a general sessions of the peace held and kept at Edgartown 
upon the Island of Capawock alias Marthas Vineyard .... 
upon the last Tuesday in March and on the first Tuesday of 
October yearly from time to time." The trial of all civil 
cases "by appeal or writ of error" was provided for at the 
Superior Court to be held at Boston.^ The old bench was 
reappointed with one new associate. 

When the act for the "better settlement" of Martha's 
Vineyard was passed, May 29, 1695, provision was made for 



'New York Col. AIss., XXXIII, 95, No. 8. 
^Acts and Resolves, I, 73. 



267 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

appeals from the General Court of Sessions of the Peace and 
the Inferior Court of Common Pleas to Plymouth as expressed 
in the following extract from the statute : — 

And all Appeals from any Judgment or Judgments given, or to be 
given in any of the Inferiotir Courts of Pleas within the said County, shall 
henceforth be Heard and Tryed at the Superiour Court of Judicature to 
be Holden from time to time at Plymouth, within the Neighboring County 
of Plymouth; any Law Usage or Custom to the contrary notwithstanding: 
the Jurors to Serve at the said Superiour Courts of Judicature, to be from 
time to time Chosen and Summoned out of the several Towns within the 
said County of Plymouth and Dukes County, according to the directions 
in the Law in such case provided. 

A suit for dispossession entered in our court in October, 
1695, t)y Nathaniel Oliver of Boston against Anthony Blaney, 
involving the western quarter of Naushon, disclosed a defect 
in the county judicial system established by Massachusetts. 
Blaney in his answer to the complaint declared, "that the 
Marshall who a rasted him had no jurisdiction power nor 
libertie for such action on Ilesabeth Ilands," and after due 
consideration of this plea the justices decided "the defendants 
plea sufficient to barre farther proceedings."^ The General 
Court of Massachusetts in its first enactments had omitted the 
Elizabeth Islands, or assumed they were part of the Vineyard, 
and thus no provision was made in reality for the administra- 
tion of justice on the former. All commissions limited juris- 
diction to Martha's Vineyard by specific designation. Con- 
sequently to heal this defect, the council at a meeting held on 
Oct. 16, 1696, ordered new commissions to be issued in which 
"Dukes County" was substituted for "Martha's Vineyard." ^ 

On June 19, 1697, ^^"^"^ on June 16, 1699, additional acts 
were passed, establishing courts and "settling time and place" 
for holding same, but no important change was made in our 
local sessions. The last act established a court of general ses- 
sions of the peace and inferior court of common pleas, both of 
which were to be held as before directed.^ 

In 1739 the Justices of the Dukes County Court of Ses- 
sions sent the following petition to the governor and general 
courts : — 

^Dukes County Court Records, Vol. I. 

^Mass. Arch., XL, 266; Executive Records of Council, II, 421. 

^Acts and Resolves, I, 283, 367. In 1695 the Justices were Richard Sarson, 
Matthew Mayhew, and Thomas Alayhew, in the order named, with Joseph Norton as 
marshal. 

26S 



County of Dukes County 

Whereas the s'd Courts now stand Istablished by Law to be held & 
Kept at Edgartown with & for the County afores'd On the Last Tuesday 
of March & October Annually The which with Respect to March Court 
hath Proved very Prejudicial to the Inhabitance both of this County & 
the County of Nantucket both with respect to their Husbandry, whaling 
& fishing &c. 

Yovir Petitioners Therefore Pray that your Excellency & Honours 
will be pleased to order & grant the s'd March Court may for the future 
be held & kept in Edgartown afores'd on the first Tusdays of March 
Annually and your Pettitioners as in duty bound shall ever Pray' 

This request was granted by the general court and con- 
sented to by Governor Belcher.^ 

CAPITAL TRIALS. 

In those days the name and honor of the king or his family 
could not be assailed with safety, and that our island court 
was fully alive to its duty in protecting the dignity of the duke 
is evident from an incident which occurred in 1676. John 
Wright, a coastwise skipper, was indicted here upon the testi- 
mony of Isaac Norton and Peter Jenkins, "for speaking con- 
tumelius werds concerning his Royall highness James Duke of 
York, saying he was no more looked upon then a Dog, to the 
wounding and impayring his fayme and Dignitie." He was 
tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. But an appeal for 
clemency to Governor Sir Edmund Andros was allowed. The 
royal governor wrote Mayhew that "yourself having no farther 
objection, but satisfyed of his Innocency, Hee ought not to be 
prest." The court was complimented for its "due proseedings 
therein" and the unlucky, and probably tipsy, sailor was saved 
from the gallows by a pardon. In an effusive letter of grati- 
tude for his delivery Wright thus apostrophises Andros: "to 
whome under God I am behoulding to for my all there being a 
sentence of death given upon my Concarnes by the Court of 
Martynes Vineyarde had not your Cleminessy given me a 
Resericktion I had bin now but the prodikt of a sifer.'" It 
was a dangerous thing to speak ill of the duke on Martha's 
Vineyard. 

But a real capital trial was held before this court in 1689, 
the defendant being an Indian. The story is thus told by a 
contemporary writer: — 

'Mass. Arch., XLI, 345. 

^Dukes County Court Records, Vol. I, comp. N. Y. Col. Mss., XXVI, 42; N. Y. 
Col. Doc, XII, 656. 

269 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

About the year 1668 an Indian squaw was found murdered at Martha's 
Vineyard, and the neighbourhood suspected an Indian man, whose name 
was Pamahtuk, to be the author of the murder. Nevertheless upon his 
examination he deny'd that fact; and because the fact could not be proved 
against him, he was left at liberty. More than twenty years after this 
there was another Indian scjuaw found murdered and this Pamahtuk with 
some others were thereupon questioned, who all denyed the murder; nor 
was there any evidence to convict them of it. Hereupon an Indian present 
moved that Pamahtuk might be again interrogated concerning the murder 
committed so many years ago; and behold the poor creature immediately 
confessed himself guilty.' 

At the court holden Sept. 17, 1689, Mr. Thomas West, 
"their Majesties Attorney complaineth against pammatoock 
Indian & Eleksander for killing Sarah an Indian maid at 
tisbury." The grand jury found a true bill that the Indian 
(Pammatoock) killed the girl in 1664." 

"After a fair trial," says our authority, "he was found 
guilty," and the court records tell the rest in short and simple 
phrase. 

Ordered that pommatoock Indian shall be executed the 26 of Sep- 
tember 1689 for murder don in or about 1664: until he is dead dead dead.^ 

The punishment was inflicted on the day specified, prob- 
ably in Edgartown, and is the first known execution on the 
Vineyard. In this case it will be noticed that "their Majesties 
Attorney" conducted the prosecution. This ofhcer is first 
mentioned in the previous year, under date of Jan. 8, 1687-8, 
as "the King's Slissiter (solicitor)" and it is presumed he was 
a recent appointment to aid the court in the trial of criminal 
cases.* Thomas West was the king's attorney in 1690, and in 
the absence of other evidence may be considered as serving 
as such from the first date when that officer is mentioned. 

JUDICIAL. 

There were few persons on the island before 1800 who 
were learned in legal affairs, and it is probable that litigants 
conducted their own cases to a great extent. The County 
Clerks acted in all matters involving the preparation of legal 
documents, and the clergy usually drew up wills for their 
parishioners. It is thought that Temple Phillip Cooke of 

'Mather, "Magnalia," II, 444. 

^his date does not agree with the above cited authority, but being the original 
legal record it is believed to be the correct one. 

'Dukes County Court Records, Vol. I. 

*On that same date the court is designated as "oyer and terminer," an ancient 
phrase applied to a court sitting to hear and determine causes. 

270 



County of Dukes County 

Edgartown (1724), whose beautiful cipher signature is else- 
where shown, was the first educated attorney on the island. 
Admissions to the bar were not required in those days, and not 
until fifty years later is there any record of such a proceeding. 
At the January term of the Court, 1779, William Jernegan 
was sworn in as attorney at law, and he was followed in 1780 
by Thomas Cooke, son of Temple Phillip; by Nathan Bassett 
in 1784, and Ebenezer Skiff in 1798, these four representing 
all admissions to the bar before the beginning of the nineteenth 
century. 

THE SHIRE TOWN. 

By reason of its primogeniture, rather than by a decree 
by statute, Edgartown has been the county seat since the set- 
tlement of the island, a period of over two and a half centuries, 
but it has not always held peaceful possession of the title. 
As the only "towne uppon the Vineyard" for thirty years, 
there was no rival to dispute its hold on the official records of 
the estates of the inhabitants of the island. When the govern- 
ment was reorganized in 1671, and other towns were incorpo- 
rated, no provision was made for a county jurisdiction, and 
hence no shire town was required; but Edgartown continued 
to be the residence of the governor whose influence was para- 
mount, and who doubtless kept all the court and land records 
in his possession or in that of his family. When the county 
was organized in 1683, no shire town was named, but it was 
provided in the organization of the courts that they should be 
held at such "places as shall bee thought fitt & convenient" 
by the justices, who selected the Vineyard and Nantucket 
alternately without naming the township. There was really 
but one place for such a purpose, and that was Edgartown. 
In this situation matters remained until the transfer of juris- 
diction to Massachusetts when, on Nov. 25, 1692, in an act 
relating to the time and place of holding courts, Edgartown 
was for the first time specified as the location, and thus acquired 
an official confirmation of her primacy.^ This seat of the new 
jurisdiction remained firm for about thirty years, during which 
time a new generation had grown up and the towns of Chil- 
mark and Tisbury were increasing in wealth and population. 
In 1700 the province taxes for Edgartown were ;^i5, for Chil- 
mark £f), and for Tisbury £']\ and in 1708 they were for- 

'Acts and Resolves, Mass. Bay, I, 73. In a subsequent act dated June i6, 1699, 
this was repeated. (Ibid., I, 367.) 

271 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

Chilmark ;^5i, for Edgartown £^o, for Tisbury £;^o, showing 
for the first time the lead of Chilmark in taxable value. In 
1720 the figures were still more noticeable — Chilmark £2,8, 
Edgartown £21,, and Tisbury ;!^ii, making a total of ;^49 or 
over two-thirds at the middle and west end of the island. With 
wealth and numbers came ambition, and w:e find as a result, 
in 1720, the first definite move made to procure the removal 
of the shire town to the geographical center of the island. The 
townsmen of Chilmark started the ball rolling at a meeting 
held on Sept. 15, 1720, when it was 

Voted, That Pain Mayhew Esq who is the Representative of said town 
be & is hereby dyrected to put in a pettission in behalf of the town to the 
General} Court to obtain the Remove of the sheir town from Edgartown 
to Tisbury and that the Courts holden for the County of Dukes County 
may for the futur be held att Tisbury.* 

Supplemental action was taken later at a town meeting 
held in Chilmark Nov. 28, 1720, when it was voted that a 
petition be sent to the General Court to obtain a committee to 
see about removing the place of "setting" of the courts for 
Dukes County.^ With becoming modesty, as the beneficiary 
of this change, Tisbury took no action, maintaining a passive 
attitude. For several years Chilmark and Tisbury had been 
pooling their interests in the matter of representatives to the 
General Court, and with one of the Mayhew family, Major 
Pain, then the joint representative, it was felt that the change 
could bs effected. But nothing came of this first concerted 
attempt to remove the shire town. 

EARLY COURT HOUSES. 

Sittings of the courts were probably held at the residence 
of the elder Mayhew, as appears by an entry in the court re- 
cords under date of March 26, 1677-8, when a person was fined 
for an ''unseemly Act in the governers house when a difference 
was in triall & examination before the Govourner." 

Whether there was a court house in existence before this 
date is not known, as there are no references to such a building 
in the early records. On June 3, 1680, at a general court, 
the lollowing law was passed: — 

Ordered That the Court shall be accommodated and provided for 
during their sitting at the charge of the County.^ 

^Chilmark Records, p. 365. 

^Ibid., p. 22. 

^N. Y. Coll. Mss., XXIX. 

272 



County of Dukes County 

This would indicate that no accommodations had been 
provided heretofore, and even this does not specify that a 
building should be erected for the purpose. It is not likely 
that such was the case, and it is probable that the quarter ses- 
sions were holden in the church at Edgartown. But a new 
element had been injected into the situation, and now Chil- 
mark and Tisbury were making an effort to obtain the "county 
seat" for the latter village. Under these circumstances the 
office holders of Edgartown proceeded to anchor down the 
title of their place as shire town by providing a court house 
for the county, and thus have an argument against removal 
in case of further squalls from the west. Accordingly the 
bench entered into negotiations for a site, and finally, on 
March 14, 1721, bought a lot from Samuel Bassett, w^hicli is 
described as follows : — 

[Dukes Deeds, VI, 124.] 

Samuel Bassett to the Inhabitants of Dukes County and the Present 
and future Justices. 

Land on which to build a Court House in Edgartown, being a part 
of a lot lately bought of Simon Athearn, " 25 foot in breadth, beginning 
at a foot path that goeth along the town on the S. W. side of sd Bassett's 
lot, adjoining the land of Sam'l Butler, & extending westward 40 feet . . . 
for the use above expressed so long as the Justices from time to time shall 
keep or order the County Court house yard kept, warranting they shall 
and may build thereon.' 

This lot was on North Water street, on the west side^ 
about half way between Thomas and Morse streets, and it is 
supposed that a court house was erected thereon at once as it 
is known that the building was in existence some years later 
and described as located "within 20 rods" of the water.^ 

For forty ensuing years peace reigned on this question 
and, presumably, Edgartown considered herself secure in her 
glory, but the same causes were still operating and the west 
end of the island was not satisfied. It was a state of neutrality 
that all understood and, in 1761, the agitation began again. 
We may suppose that Chilmark was the chief conspirator at 
this time as on the previous occasion, for the battle was started 
by its people in the latter part of that year. The following 
records show what action they took : — 

'Bassett sold three acres and a house to Samuel Waldo of Boston in 1729 (Deeds' 
IV, 313), and Waldo deeded same to Samuel Stewart in 1734, "reserving for Court House 
land 30 feet in width and 80 feet in length joining to said foot path," i. c, along the 
bank, the present North Water street. (Deeds, V, 142.) This is a different measure- 
ment of the plot as described in Bassett's deed. 

=Mass. Archives, CXV, II, 758. 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

Att a Town Meeting Lawfully warned and heald in Chillmark on 
Wednesday the 14th of Oct. 1761 Zacks Mayhew moderator. . . . allso 
voted that Mr. Jonathan Allen be an agant for sd town in order to join 
with the agant of the town of Tisbury in sd County to Prepar a Petishon 
to the grate and general Court of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay 
that Tisbury may be made the Shear town of sd County in the room of 
Edgartown in sd County and to do and act all things necesary Relation 
thereto.^ 

This time Tisbury was not so shy and, when the subject 
was brought to the notice of the townspeople, a meeting was 
called to see what stand it was best to take in the premises. 
Accordingly, a town meeting was called two days later to con- 
sider the subject, and the following is a record of the action 
taken by the freeholders : — 

At a legal Town meeting held at the Meeting House in Tisbury on 
the i6th Day of October Anno Dom: 1761 .... said Meeting was Notified 
to se if a Vote might be Obtained to Chuse some meet Person to Prefer a 
Petition to the General Court or Assembly held att Boston &c: that Tis- 
bury might for the future be Made The Shire Town in Dukes County: 
Said Agent to Joyn with the Agent of Chillmark in Prefering Said Petition 
and said Vote being Put it Past in the Affirmative and Mr. James Athearn 
was Chosen for the Purpose Abovesaid Recorded.^ 

This joint committee, Jonathan Allen and James Athearn, 
acting in accordance with their instructions, prepared and pre- 
sented to the Governor and Council and the Representatives 
in General Court assembled, the following petition, dated 
Nov. 20, 1 761, setting forth the reasons for the change desired : — 

[Mass. Archives, CXVII, fol. 752.] 

To His Excellency Francis Bernard Esq., Cap- 
PROVENCE OF THE tain General &c., & to the Hon'bl His Majes- 
MASS. BAY ties Council & House of Representatives in 

General Court assembled: 

The Petition of James Athearn & Jonathan Allen Agents for the 
Towns of Tisbury & Chilmark, Humbly sheweth: That the first sethng 
of This County by the English was at the East end att the Town of Ed- 
gartown, which ever since has been The Shire Town in said County & 
the courts held there But as the People Increased They Extended towards 
the West End so that the Greatest Part of the Inhabitants are in the Towns 
of Tisbury & Chilmark, as may be seen by the lists of Valuation. 

Now Your Pettrs Humbly Pray That as the Greatest Part of the In- 
habitants are in Tisbury & Chilmark that Tisbury may be for the future 
The Shire Town in said County & The Courts Held There which we ap- 
prehend will be vastly more Beneficial For the Community in said County 
as The Courts will be Held in the Center of said County which now is at 

'Chilmark Town Records, I, 1 18. 
^Tisbury Records, 179. 

274 



County of Dukes County 



one End. It will Likewise Lessen the Court Charges for Grand Jurors 
Bills of Costs, Travel of Witnesses &c. And further yr Pettrs apprehend 
it will accomodate the Inhabitants of the County much more then at pres- 
ent for those Persons obliged to Tend Court Cant Return Home at night 
which they may if s'd Courts may be for the Future held in Tisbury & 
Further yr Pettrs would Inform yr Excellency & Hon'rs that that Part of 
This County called Elizabeth Islands & the Island of Nomans Land lay 
Three Leagues to the Westward and Southward of the Island & have thereon 
about Twenty familys which are obliged to Tend Court after they have 
Landed on the West Part of The Island. They are obliged to Travel at 
Least Twelve Miles to the Courts at Edgartown, which they Cant Doe & 
Returne at Night, Whereas if the Courts were Held in Tisbury they might 
Doe their Business & Return at Night & Farther yr Pettrs would Beg 
Leave to Inform yr Excellency & Hon'rs That That Part of Edgartown 
Vv'here the Courts are Held now is Poorly furnisht with Pasture or Hay to 
Keep Horses &c. Moreover yr Pettrs further Inform yr Excellency & 
Hon'rs that The Ferry for Transporting People from the Vineyard to the 
Main Land is in Tisbury &c. And at a Legal Town Meeting held in the 
Towns of Tisbury & Chilmark your pettrs were chosen as Agents for the 
purpose aboves'd as may appear by the s'd Town Vote Hereto Annext, 
and yr Pettrs as in Duty Bound shall ever Pray. 

JAMES ATHEARN JONATHAN ALLEN. 

The council took the following action, under date of 



& 



Nov. 21, 1 761: — 

In Council Read and Ordered that the Petitioners serve the Town 
of Edgartown with a copy of this Petition that they shew Cause (if any 
they have), on the second Thursday of the next sitting of this Court, why 
the Prayer thereof should not be granted.' 

In due course this notice was served as directed, and al- 
though it was known what was going on, yet Edgartown had 
done nothing officially about the matter. When notice was 
received, a town meeting was called, at which the following 
votes were passed on Dec. 15, 1761, to meet the impending 
disaster: — 

Voted. John Sumner Esq., John Norton Esq., Matthew Norton, 
Mr. John Coffin, Mr. John Worth, Mr. Peter Norton, Mr. Elijah Butler, 
serve as a committee to draw an answer to a Petition which was sent into 
the General Court by the town of Tisbury and Chilmark praying that 
Tisbury might be made the Sheir Town. 

Voted, that John Norton and John Sumner Esq., be joint agents for 
the town with full power either of them to appear in the absence of the 
other at the Great & General Court of this Province and there in its be- 
half to make answer to a Petition of the towns of Chilmark & Tisbury, 
which prays that Tisbury may be the Sheir town in Dukes County & to 
prosecute the sd answer till the fate of the Petition be determined." 

'Council Records, XXIV, 117. 
-Edgartown Records, I, 233. 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

This strong and formidable committee started out on the 
war path without delay, and the sub-committee prepared the 
following interesting, humorous, and powerful answer to the 
petitioners : — 

[Mass. Archives, CXVII, fol. 758.] 

To his Excellency Francis Bernard, Esq., Capt General &c., To the 
Honorable his Majesties Council & House of Representatives in a 
General Court assembled: — 

Forasmuch as your Excellency & honours have been pleased to order 
that the Town of Edgartown should be served with a copy of a Petition 
of James Athearn & Jonathan Allen Esq'rs as Agents for the Towns of 
Tisbury & Chilmark for the removal of the Shire Town in Dukes County 
from Edgartown to Tisbury in order for our offering Reasons if any we 
have why their Prayer ought not to be granted, Wherefore we the Sub- 
scribers as Agents for s'd Edgartown beg leave to make Answer as Fol- 
loweth: — And in the first place w^e shall shew the true force (if any there 
be), in those reasons which they have alleged for the removal thereof, and 
then offer some further reasons why their Prayer ought not to be granted. 

May it please yr Excellency & hon'rs they alledge that it would be 
for the good of the community of the County which we suppose they in- 
tended to lay down as a general Proposition & to support by their fol- 
lowing Reasons: they say in case the Courts should be held in Tisbury 
the Bills of Cost in the County for Travail of Jurors and Evidences would 
be less than now — to which we answer that we send a number of Jurors 
equal to both the other Towns so that when those of Chilmark have got to 
Tisbury (to which place they must come be the Courts held here or there), 
they in conjunction with those of Tisbury make a number equal to that of 
Edgartown. And we very humbly inquire whether it costs any more 
to pay a certain number of men for Travailing Eight miles east than an 
equal number eight miles west : and whether there would be a Diminution 
of charge for the Travail of Evidence in case the Courts should be held 
in Tisbury is altogether uncertain: but allowing they would, and as 
great a Diminution as they can with the best appearance of Reason pre- 
tend; we cant suppose it would nearly be equal to the Interest of the money 
which it would cost the County to remove the Court House & Goal (both 
of which it is noted are now in very good Repair at Edgartown), so that 
it would not thro'out in all ages in any part Countervail that Charge to 
the County. 

Again: They Allegd that they apprehend that it will accomodate the 
Inhabitants of this County, much more than at present for those Persons 
obliged to attend Courts cant Return home at Night, which they might 
if the Courts were held at Tisbury — by which we conceive that they 
cant intend that none of the Inhabitants of this County can now return 
home at night whereas they might all return home at Night in case the 
Courts were held in Tisbury, for this is most evidently false it being as 
easy for People that live within i, 2, 3, &c miles of Court to return now 
as then but that they cant in so great a proportion now as then: and here 
it is true that the Inhabitants of Chilmark have now Eleven miles to Trav- 
ail, whereas those of Edgartown would have then but eight and that other 

276 



County of Dukes County 



things being equal, those of Edgartown can as well return from Tisbury 
on account of the distance as those of Tisbury from Edgartown, but not- 
withstanding those things considering that the People of Chilmark & Tis- 
bury mostly live by farming & keep Horses, they can doubtless in as a 
great proportion & with the same ease return now as then it being much 
easier to ride Eleven miles than to walk Eight. 

They plead in favour of the Inhabitants of the Elizabeth and Noman's 
Land Islands in which they say there are near 20 Families, that after 
they have sailed 3 Leagues to the North Shore they have 12 miles to Travail 
to the place where the Courts are now held: and so cant go home at 
night, whereas in case the Courts were held at Tisbury they might go 
home at night. To which we answer that if the Courts were held at Tis- 
bury they would have three or four miles to travail from a part of the 
North Shore, which distance we can hardly suppose they could Travail 
after sailing 3 Leagues and perform business at Court and Return the 
same Day: it is true these People have further to Travail now then in 
case the Courts were to be held at Tisbury, but this is no charge to the 
County in general for they are never required to serve as Jurors (the ad- 
vantage of their doing so being in no measure a compensation for the 
trouble of warning them); and with Regard to the Inhabitants of those 
Islands in particular as they have seldom if ever any occasion to attend 
Courts, except for the Renewal of their Licence for Innholding, we Ques- 
tion whether the charge of the additional Travail to them would ever 
preponderate their part of the Charge of removing the Court House and 
Prisn. 

Again they further assert that that part of Edgartown where the 
Courts are now held is poorly furnished with Pasture or Hay to keep 
Horses, & to which we answer that they don't generally attempt to put up 
their Horses, & so it is possible that some time when they have desired 
it they may have found the less provision therefor, but it does not appear 
that they have any Reason to Complain there being several Persons that 
live near who Declare thay have ever been ready to take proper Care of 
their Horses & never Refused any when applyed to for Twenty years 
past, and are still ready to furnish them with good hay at one Shilling 
pr night at March Court and Pasture at eight pence pr Night at October 
Court, provided they are disposed to put them up. 

They inform your Excellency & hon'rs that the Ferry for Transport- 
ing People from the Vineyard to the Main Land is in Tisbury, by which 
we suppose they intend to intimate that in case the Courts are held in Tis- 
bury People from the Main Land (if any there be) who have occasion to 
attend our Courts could do it more easily, but we beg leave to inform 
your Excellency & hon'rs that altho' Tisbury does enjoy the Privilege of 
the Ferry yet the Difference is but very small as the distance from it to 
the Courts where thay are now held or in Tisbury, & that the Distance tc 
either Place is so great that People would be obhged to Transport their 
Horses, it being eight miles now and six miles to Tisbury: And that Peo- 
ple from Boston, Rhoad Island & Nantucket (to which places our Trade 
is almost wholly confined), can come within 20 Rods of the Court House 
by Water, whereas in case the Courts were held in Tisbury they would 
be obliged after Landing to Travail 6 or 8 miles. And we would just 
observ^e here with regard to the Inhabitants of the EUzabeth Islands that 



277 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

there is no harbour upon the North Shore and the waves are frequently 
so high that it is probable that they would be obliged to Land at Holmes' 
hole & then the difference of their Travail would be no greater than that 
of the People who came over the Ferry from the Main land. And as a 
further Reason why the Prayer of the afores'd Pettr's ought not to be 
granted we beg leave to inform y'r Excellency & hon'rs that the Indians 
who often have occasion to attend Courts are now much better accomo- 
dated than in case the Courts were held at Tisbury, for here they can 
within call of the Court furnish themselves with plenty of Shell Fish for 
Provisions, whereas then they would be obliged to spend their money there- 
for if anything they have and otherwise to Live upon People or suffer 
hunger: and now when any of them are in Goal others easily furnish them 
with Shell Fish and with fire wood, which they have a great plenty of on 
Chappaquiddick, which lies near the Court House, whereby their lives 
are rendered the more comfortable; likewise as we are liable to be ran- 
sacked by Privateers or the like in time of war (of which the General 
Court in the last Spanish war was so apprehensive as to grant us a con- 
siderable sum of money for building a Fortification), in case the Courts 
were held in Tisbury our danger hereof would be very greatly increased; 
for if an enemy knew when our Courts were held and that they were held 
there (as they might easily inform themselves), they would doubtless 
Choose such a time to Plunder us. 

Furthermore: This is the only Safe Harbour for Shipping upon the 
Island and the People not only of this but of the other Towns Carry on 
their Trade & Business here, and as our Courts are held just before our 
Whale men sail in the Spring and about the time they make up their Voy- 
ages in the Fall; so People can accomodate their business at Court times: 
Whereas then they would be greatly removed therefrom. 

Again: That altho' the other two Towns have Increased faster than 
we for some time past yet there is no Rational prospect of their doing 
so in the Future; for the Island has now as many Inhabitants as the Land 
will comfortably support; so that if there should be any further increase 
of Inhabitants it seems they must be supported by whaleing. Fishing & 
seafaring business, and as there is no other safe harbour except this (as 
we have before observed), so it seems that this must be the Place for Car- 
rying on such business, and there is a prospect (with Divine blessing), 
of an Increase herein, in this place inasmuch as the Situation of this is 
much more commodious than that of Nantucket, and since our People 
seem now to be running into it, as there sailed from this Town the Summer 
past nineteen Masters of vessels and upwards of fifty Sailors. Disorders 
arise often among the sailors who live in the Harbor and some of them 
have been obliged to be committed to Goal, which now can very easily 
be done and the Prisoner be delivered immediately when ever the wind 
suits for sailing; whereas it would be vastly incommodious to send them 
up Eight miles from the Harbur and when the vessel was ready to sail 
to wait till they could be brought back again; and it is not at all unlikely 
that were the Instruments of Correction removed they would take the 
advantage thereof and be guilty of greater disorders, and if it should here 
be objected that Holmes hole Harbour is more used than this by Coasters 
and Foreigners it may be very easily answered that it is much easier to 
sail into this Harbour (a thing which they frequently do when they are 

278 



County of Dukes County 

under apprehansions of a storm, that harbour being much Exposed to a 
North East wind), than to send six miles by land. 

Lastly: The Charge of moving the Court House & Prison would be 
very heavy upon this small County, especially at this Time inasmuch as 
our Province Taxes are high and we have been of late at some very con- 
siderable expense in the County e. g, we have settled Two Ministers, one 
the last year, the other this — we have built a new Ferry boat, Repaired 
the Court House & lately paid for building a Goal & been at the charge 
of imprisoning and Trying an Indian for Murder. 

These or the like Reasons we humbly conceive ought to continue the 
Mother Towns in the enjoyment of their Priviledges of this nature not- 
withstanding thay be not in the Center, especially since your Excellency 
& hon'rs have not seen fit to remove the Shire Towns in several Counties 
in the Province in which a removal we apprehend might with parity or 
superiority of Reasons be urged as in this, and we beg that considering 
these things your Excellency & hon'rs would be pleased to continue us 
in the enjoyment of those Priviledges which we have had from the begin- 
ning, and redily Dismiss their Petition especially seeing it is not the first 
time they have thus Troubled us. Which we shall have the more occasion 
to hope for if we may be favoured with a hearing on the floor. 

And as in duty bound shall ever pray &c. 
Edgartown Jan'y 8th 1762. 

JOHN NORTON ) ^^^"^^ ^^^ , 
JOHN SUMNER I *;[-r* 

The council having read the plain and forceful statement 
of the petitioners and the witty and stirring remonstrance of 
Edgartown were in an uncertain frame of mind, and after 
deliberation, took the following action on Jan. 22, 1762: — 

In Council Read again, together with the Answer of the Town of 
Edgartown, and Ordered That Benjamin Lynde and John Cushing Esqrs 
with such as the honourable House shall join be a Committee to take the 
same under consideration, hear the parties and report. 

In the House of Representatives Read and Concurred and Mr. Tyler, 
Capt. Livermore and Capt. Richardson are joined in this affair.' 

The augmented committee finally reached a decision upon 
the subject which was a compromise, as it only divided the 
holding of the courts between the two towns, and on Feb. 8, 
1762, the following act was passed in pursuance of the recom- 
mendation of the committee : — 

Be it enacted &c., that the Court of General Sessions of the Peace 
and Inferior Court of Common Pleas for the County of Dukes County, ap- 
pointed to be holden on the last Tuesday of October, annually, shall 
instead of being holden at Edgarto\\Ti, be henceforth holden at Tisbury, on 
the last Tuesday of October, annually, and all officers and other persons 
concerned, are requested to conform theerto accordingly.- 



'Council Records, XXIV, 191. 

^Acts and Resolves, Province of Mass. Bay. 



279 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

The result was not satisfactory to either petitioners or 
remonstrants, in all probability, as the "west enders" wanted 
the whole establishment removed to Tisbury; but it is signifi- 
cant of the deliberate way in which this matter was managed 
that nothing further was done by the petitioners to accomplish 
their purpose for a quarter of a century. Meanwhile, the act 
went into effect, and it required the building of another court 
house and the maintenance of two by this small county. It is 
probable that the October terms of the court, 1762 and 1763, 
were held in the meeting house at Tisbury, as no steps were 
taken to provide a court house for the sitting of the justices. 
Accordingly, at a meeting of the judges of the court, held on 
February, 1764, 

On a motion made by Mr. Chief Justice Mayhew to the Court that 
there was need of a House to be built in Tisbury for the Holding of the 
Courts by Law to be held there on the Last Tuesday of October annually, 

Voted That there should be the sum of ;^io8-o-o Lawful money forth 
with raised in the said County of Dukes County, The sum of ;^48 to be 
raised and applied for the Building the aforesaid House and the Remain- 
der being £60-0-0 for Defraying the other Charges that the County is 
now in debt for.' 

At the same meeting, probably to perfect negotiations 
already under way, the following action was taken by them : — 

Voted the sum of ;^48 to Samuel Cobb, "he first giving conveyance 
to this County of a Piece of Land for to set said House upon on the West 
side of Mill Brook in Tisbury & likewise obliges himself to build a House 
of the Same Dimention as the Court House in Edgartown & to finnish 
the same in the Same manner that That is done by the first Day of Octo- 
ber next.^ 

Taxes to Edgartown 38-10-93-4 

Chilmark 4 1-06-6 1-4 

Tisbury 28-02-8 



I I 5-0-0 



The land referred to is situated on the spot now occupied 
by the post oflice in the village of West Tisbury. The deed 
describing the property, executed by Samuel Cobb to James 
Athearn, as agent for the county, was dated July 10, 1764, 
and is in abstract as follows : — 

for the entire use and benefit of the County of Dukes County afore- 
said a certain piece of upland lying in Tisbury aforesaid at the southeast 
corner of that piece of land bought of Silvanus Cottle late of said Tisbury 

'Dukes County Court Records. 
^bid. 

280 



County of Dukes County 

ying on the east side of the old mill river in said Tisbury bounded on 
the east side by the road dividing said land from the land of Barnard Case 
and on the south by the road dividing said land from the land of Samuel 
Manter of said Tisbury to extend twenty five feet north & twenty five feet 
west from said corner so as to be twenty five feet square, to him the said 
James Athearn to and for the only use aforesaid in order for said county 
to errect a Court House for said County thereon.' 

At a meeting of the justices at this time, to act upon the 
subject, the following vote was passed : — 

July 1764. Court of Sessions. Present: Matthew Ma yhew, Chief Justice, 
John Sumner, Ebenezer Smith, and James Athearn, Associates. 

Ordered that there be a floor laid in the Upper part of the Court 
House in Tisbury and that the Roof be Joynted & Ploughed and that 
the Justices Bencla be Raised the fore Part & that there be hanging benches 
to lean upon .... and that the Joyce be straight.^ 

It is supposed that the building was completed at the time 
required, and that the new court house, of the same size and 
style as its rival in Edgartown, with its "hanging benches" 
for the spectators "to lean upon" was opened with much pomp 
by their honors for the first time in October, 1764, to comply 
with the law.^ Here the courts annually administered justice 
until 1807, and in this building met the delegates to the County 
Convention in December, 1774, and passed those stirring reso- 
lutions of resistance to the British government on the eve of 
the great struggle. To-day it is used as an ice house, or part 
of it, on an adjoining lot, having been removed years ago from 
its original location. 

LATER COURT HOUSES. 

In 1 781, upon petition of William Jernegan, Thomas 
Cooke, and Benjamin Smith, representing "the Expediency 
of Removing the Court House in Edgartown to some more 
Convent Place Provided that the same may be Removed and 
Compleated in some sutable Place without Expense to the 
County which they think may be Done by Granting the Land 
whereon said house Stands to the Undertakers of that Busi- 
ness." 

The justices granted this petition and impowered them 
to remove the old Court House from North Water street "to 

'Dukes Co. Deeds, IX, 425. 

■Dukes County Court Records. 

'There was a towTi meeting held in the "County House" in Tisbury in December, 
1764, and thereafter the annual and other town meetings were convened there. (Tis- 
bury R.ecords, 186.) 

281 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

some sutable place on the Southerly part of the Highway Be- 
twixt the INIeeting House & the Dwelling House of the said 
Thomas Cooke as soon as may be." 

Accordingly on Dec. 5, 1781, in consideration of the 
old lot, Thomas Cooke deeded to the County a lot of land 
forty feet square on the present Commercial street, south side, 
situated to the "Northwestward of the School House that 
adjoins the Road which Matthew Mayhew gave the Town 
from the Spring or Harbour to the Meeting House." 

The times were then full of excitement over the impending 
controversy with the mother country, and it was not till the 
war had ended, twenty-five years after the law of 1762, that 
the two towns began another fight to accomplish the removal 
of the shire town. Tisbury was the aggressor on this occasion 
in point of time, and held a meeting on Feb. 7, 1786, of which 
the following is a report of its doings : — 

Tisbuary ss: At A Town-meeting Legally Warn'd & held at the 
Courthouse in Tisbuary by the Freeholders and other Inhabitants on 
Tuesday the 7th of Febreuary AD: 1786 in Order to Act and do what was 
Inserted in the» Warrant for calling the Same Decon Stephen Luce being 
Moderator, And then it was put to Vote and Voted in the AfiEirmative 
that Mr Benjamin Allen Tisbuary's Present Representative Should be a 
Committee Man to Joyn the Town of Chilmark in Prephering a Pettition 
to the General Court of the State of the Common Wealth of Massachu- 
setts to have the Town of Tisbuary to be made the Shire Town in Dukes 
county and for their Courts to be held there for the Future Either at the 
Present Session or any Other Sessions hereafter &c: — * 

Chilmark followed suit two days later, and the record of 
her doings in the premises is contained in the following extract 
from the proceedings of the meeting: — 

Att a meeting on the ninth Day of february 1786. Then was chosen 
Nathaniel Bassett Esq. Moderator. 

Voted that there be a committee of two persons to Draught a Pe- 
tisson to the General Court to make Tisbury the Shear town for the said 
County: then was chosen Matthew Mayhew Esq. and Benjamin Bassett 
Esq. to Draught said Petition and to Lay it before the To\^Tl att the ad- 
jornment, and said town meeting is adjomed to Monday next at two 
o'clock in the afternoon. 

att a Town meeting by adjornment on the thirteenth day of february 
1786, then was chosen 5s''athaniel Bassett Esq. Moderator. 

And said Committee Bring in the Petition to the town and the Town 
Voted that the Petition be sent to the General Court. ^ 

^Tisbury Records, 257. 
^Chilmark Records, I, 203, 206. 

282 



County of Dukes County 

With the above named petition went the petition of Tis- 
bury, drawn up by Benjamin Allen, and both were presented 
to the General Court at its session for that year. The former 
is not in the archives, but that of the agent for Tisbury is of 
record and reads as follows : — 

To the Honorable the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
Commonweakh of Massachusetts in General Court assembled: 
The Petition of Benjamin Allen of Tisbury in behalf of said Town, 
and appointed on the Seventh day of February instant, at a legal Town 
meeting as by a vote of said town will appear. To Petition the General 
Court in conjunction with the inhabitants of the Town of Chilmark in 
the County of Dukes County That the Town of Tisbury may be made the 
shire town in sd County, first Because it is the middle town in Said County 
and in the center of the County, and the people, and one half of the County 
Courts have Been held there for some years, and a new Court House 
within a few years hath been built at Tisbury: but no goal as yet. But 
one must soon be erected at Tisbury and as the Goal at Edgartown is 
old and much out of Repair our small County must now be at the cost of 
building two Goals & keeping them in Repair, which will be such a cost 
as this small County is not able to pay, and one goal is quite sufi&cient 
for sd County if in the center of the same; for further Reasons your Pe- 
titioner begs leave to referr your honours to the Petition of the town of 
Chilmark which is now before your honours; your Petitioner humbly 
prays your Honours will be pleased to Take the above into your wise & 
Compassionate Consideration & order That the Town of Tisbury may be 
made the shire town in Dukes County and all the sd County Courts for 
the future to be held there: & as in Duty bound shall ever pray. 

BENJAMIN ALLEN Agent for Tisbury ' 
February 23, 1786. 

The representatives took the following action on the 
prayers of the petitioners shortly after : — 

In the House of Representatives 
February 28, 1786. 
Read with the Petition on the same Subject from the Town of Chil- 
mark & ordered that the Hon. Walter Spooner Esqr, Solomon Freeman K 
Esqr & Shearjashub Bourne Esq, Committee appointed the last sitting 
on the petition of a number of the Proprietors of the Island of Chabba- 
quiddick, have it in instruction to view the County of Dukes County with 
respect to the suitable place or place or places of holding the Courts there, 
hear the parties & report.^ 

It does not appear what action was taken, if any, on the 
report of this committee, but it is sufficient to say that no 
change occurred as a result of the agitation. For twenty years 



^Mass. Archives. 



283 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

more there was peace between the rival ends of the island, 
and not till the beginning of the next century did there appear 
any ripples upon the waters. This time Edgartown started 
the ball again, by trying to get the fall session transferred from 
Tisbury. In 1805, Thomas Cooke and Cornelius Marchant 
joined in a petition for a change of this character, but it got 
no further than the files of the Committee of the General 
Court, where it was lost. This time the east end faction was 
determined to fight it out to a finish, and kept up the agitation 
the next year. 

On May 7, 1806, the people of Edgartown held a meeting 
''to know the minds of the inhabitants with respect to the 
necessity & conveniency of supporting two Court houses in 
this County," and by a unanimous vote they decided "to have 
but one and that to be the one that is now in Edgartown." 
And they further voted to obtain the approbation of the General 
Court that there be but one court house established in this 
county.^ Following this the two petitioners, Cooke and Mar- 
chant, renewed their prayer for a change the next year, but 
no reason therefor are stated in their address to the General 
Court. Their petition is as follows: — 

To the Honorable the Senate and the Honorable House of Repre- 
sentatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in General Court 
assembled : 

Humbly shows Thomas Cooke and Cornelius Marchant Junr that 
by the order of the Honorable Court of the General Sessions of the Peace 
holden at Tisbury within and for the County of Dukes County on the 
26th day of February 1805 were appointed a committee to petition your 
Honours for the purpose to discontinue the October term which by Law 
is appointed to be holden at Tisbury aforesaid on the last Tuesday of 
October annually, and that the said Court be altered to the first Tuesday 
of November then to be holden at Edgartown within and for said County 
of Dukes County. 

Your Petitioners inform your Honours that they did accordingly prefer 
a Petition to the General Court at the next session which was committed 
but not reported, and the Papers since not to be found. 

We therefore Pray your Honours that the October term be discon- 
tinued and in future to be holden at Edgartown as herein set forth; and 
in duty bound shall ever pray. 
Edgartown January 6th, 1807 THO. COOKE 

COR. MARCHANT Ju'r 

This petition was referred to a committee of three, Messrs. 
Spooner of Plymouth, Whitman of Barnstable, and Sprague 
of Duxbury, who reported "as their opinion that the Petitioners 

'EdgartO'svTi Records, II, 130. 
284 



County of Dukes County 

serve the Town Clerks of the several Towns of Edgartown, 
ChOmark and Tisbury 40 days before the 2nd of Wednesday 
next session of the Court. "^ Meanwhile, before this could take 
effect, the people of the two towns were busy, each in its own 
way, to promote its interest. On April 6, 1807, Edgartown 
voted that "the Court of Common Pleas & General Sessions" 
should in the future be held at Edgartown.^ On the same day 
the voters of Tisbury were considering the same weighty matter 
in town meeting assembled, called together 

to see if the Town will agree to Remonstrate against the Petition of 
Thomas Cooke & Cornelius Merchants Esqr a Committe appointed by 
the Honourable Court of general sessions of this county, to Petetion the 
General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to all the Term of 
P. Court now holden in Tisbury on the last Tuesday of October and ordain 
that that the same should be holden at Edgartown, The Freeholders &c 
being assembled they did then proceed to the choice of a Moderator when 
John Davis was chosen, then proceeded to choose a Committe when the 
select men of the Town Vizt. 

Ezckicl Luce ~^ 

John Davis ^ ^^i^Q chosen a committe to report at the Represen- 

Thos. Dunham \ Native meeting.^ 

The two latter named selectmen produced the following 
document which was adopted by the town as its protest : — 

To the Honourable the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
commonwealth of Massachusetts in General Court assembled 

The Remonstrance of your petitioners Inhabitants of the Town of 
Tisbury in the County of Dukes County, Humbly [sheweth] that at a legal 
meeting warned for that purpose in the Town of Tisbury on the sixth 
day of April A. D. 1807. And continued by adjournment to the fourth 
day May following, the Inhabitants beg leave to Remonstrate against 
the petition of Cornelius Marchant and others of the Honourable Justices 
of the court of common pleas & General Sessions of the Peace for the 
county aforesaid in Removing said Courts from the Town of Tisbury to 
the Town of Edgartown, which deprives the people of the Sd Town of 
Tisbury of a Priveledge which we think belongs to us the Remonstrants, 
Said Town being the Central Town in the County, for one session is 
holden at Edgarton and to remove the other to the Town of Edgartown 
will be laying a burden on the people of the Town of Tisbury, for most of 
the Inhabitants live at a distance of nearly Ten miles from the Court 
house at Edgartown and wee shall be under many Inconveniencys to at- 
tend court twice a year at Edgartown, if our Honourable Court had Pe- 
titioned to hold but one session a year it would have lessened our expences 
(as lately we have had more Justices in the Commission of peace than at 

'Mass. Archives. 
^Edgartown Records, II, 139. 
^Tisbury Records, 333. 

285 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

any former period since the Constitution was framed, and we Should not 
complain for our county is very small, not larger than many Towns in this 
Commonwealth, but to remove the other sessions and to hold both at 
Edgartown will enhance our expences and Travail, so under the existing 
circumstances that we feel confident that your Honours will not permit 
the court to be altered from Tisbury to Edgartown. And we beg leave 
to refer your Honours for the foregoing statement, to the map the census 
of the County of Dukes County, and the Tax bill. Wherefore your Re- 
monstrants Humbly pray and expect that your Honourable body will not 
remove said court from Tisbury to Edgartown where it is now held, and 
your Remonstrants as in Duty will ever pray, 

THOMAS DUNHAM \ Committee appointed 
JOHN DAVIS j by the Town^ 

Hearings were held on the petition and remonstrance, 
but no change was recommended to the Legislature. 

By the statutes of the Commonwealth, as existing June i, 
1 807, the Courts of Common Pleas and Sessions were holden 
at Edgartown on the third Tuesday of May, and at Tisbury 
on the last Tuesday of October annually. On the 21st of 
June, 181 1, a law was passed establishing six jurisdictions of 
circuit courts, excepting Dukes and Nantucket Counties, and 
it was provided that sessions of the courts should be held as 
then regulated by existing statutes. This left the former situa- 
tion untouched in this county, but on June 13, 1814, these two 
counties were annexed to the so-called Southern Circuit, and 
by section three of that act "all acts and parts of acts estab- 
lishing Courts of Common Pleas within and for the counties 
of Nantucket and Dukes County" were repealed, and it was 
further provided that the sessions of the courts should be held 
on the last Mondays of May and September at Edgartown, 
for this county. On Feb. 20, 1819, these two counties were 
again excepted in an act to establish courts of sessions in the 
Commonwealth. Out of all this confusion, and while the 
succeeding changes were following each other in unusual rap- 
idity, Tisbury lost its semi-annual session, perhaps by intent 
and possibly by accident, but if any watchful representative 
from Edgartown was doing his duty at that time, the omission 
may not have been so accidental or innocent as might seem. 
It is evident that great confusion existed in the judicial system 
of the Commonwealth at that period, to judge from the frequent 
acts and repeals of acts, but it was a fixed belief of the people 
of Tisbury that the court had been stolen from them, by under- 
handed means, if we may trust the traditions of this controversy. 

*Tisburv Records, 334. The court records show the last session of the court as 
holden at Tisbury in October, 1807. 

286 



County of Dukes County 

It would be interesting to know the inside history of this phase 
of the long struggle, but perhaps it has never been handed 
down to posterity. 

It took four acts, finally, in 1826, February, 1827, and 
June, 1827, and in 1828, before the tangle was straightened out 
as far as Xhe holding of court at Edgartown was concerned, 
and in this last act Edgartown was made the county seat, 
''all laws to the contrary notwithstanding." Matters remained 
in abeyance for the next thirty years, when the county build- 
ings at Edgartown, built from 1803 to 1825, the court house 
and jail, were in a dilapidated state, and the question of re- 
newal was agitated by the taxpayers of the county. This was 
always a ticklish time for the fortunes of Edgartown, and 
agitation again filled the air for a change of the shire town. 

The old court house became unfit for occupancy twenty 
years after the removal in 1781, and in 1803 upon represen- 
tation of this subject the Justices appointed Thomas Cooke, 
Benjamin Allen, and Zebulon Allen a committee to consider 
and report upon the cost of a new building. The sum of five 
hundred dollars was reported as necessary for the purpose, 
which the Court approved, and ordered the same committee 
to "fix upon a suitable lot for the same, and commissioned 
William Jernegan to sell the old building and procure materials 
to erect a new one, (36 -by 26) on land belonging to James 
Coffin. This gentleman for "Good will and Regard" for the 
people of Dukes County donated on Nov. 18, 1803, the 
tract of land on Main Street on which the present Court House 
now stands. The Court allowed the sum of $614.31 to William 
Jernegan for the cost of the new building in February, 1808, 
which would indicate its completion about that time. In the 
previous November, John Davis, Esq., had been appointed 
agent "to sell and Dispose of the Court House in Tisbury 
with the Land Belonging to said Court House at Private sale 
to the Best advantage." 

In August, 1857, James Gray, of Tisbury, with others 
petitioned the selectmen to call a meeting of the voters, to see 
what action should be taken in the matter of repairing the old 
county building at Edgartown, and another fight for the cap- 
ture of the shire town was inaugurated. The meeting was 
called for the 17th of August, and Thomas Bradley and James 
Gray were made agents of the town "in relation to County 
Buildings and having Tisbury to be made the shire Town." 
Meanwhile, petitions were circulated through the three towns 

287 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

praying that the change be made as indicated. The following 
is a copy of the petition : — 

To the Honourable Senate and House of Representatives of Massa- 
chusetts, in General Court assembled: 

The undersigned, legal voters of the town of Tisbury (Edgartown 
and Chilmark), respectfully represent, that under the existing laws the 
public buildings and Courts of the County of Dukes County are in Edgar- 
town, at the extreme end of the County, causing great inconvenience to the 
largest portion of the inhabitants of the County, and that the County 
buildings now standing in Edgartown, have become old and very imsuit- 
able; new buildings must soon be erected, and the cost of changing the 
shiretown will be no additional expense to the county. 

Your petitioners further represent, that Tisbury is the center town 
of the three towns comprising the County, and that a far greater portion 
of the inhabitants of the County, and others having business in the Courts 
and with the records of the County, would have easier access to them if 
the County buildings were placed in Tisbury. 

In view of the above statement of facts, your petitioners respectfully 
but earnestly request that an Act of your body may be passed making 
Tisbury the shire town of the County of Dukes County and that the County 
building be located and courts held in that part of Tisbury called Homes 
Hole.' 

The three petitions were identical in language and were 
signed by Charles Bradley and 301 others in Tisbury, Charles 
Kidder and 28 others in Edgartown, and David L. Adams and 
100 others in Chilmark, a total of 432 voters in the entire 
county. This time Homes Hole was the candidate for the 
honors. 

The county commissioners, three in number, were divided, 
the majority favoring removal to Tisbury, and the movement 
was gaining in favor with the continued discussion. The 
Supreme Court was appealed to by the office-holding element 
of Edgartown, and a Writ of Mandamus was obtained, direct- 
ing the county commissioners to build a suitable court house 
and other county buildings, and there was no other alternative 
but to proceed upon that basis. Specifications and proposals 
were issued and the contract for the new, and present, county 
building was let on March 24, 1858, and work was at once be- 
gun on the new structures. Meanwhile, the petition of the 
taxpayers were making unsatisfactory progress, and the up- 
shot of the agitation was that the petitioners got the fatal 
''leave to withdraw." They were too late in their campaign, 
as the legislature was faced with the mandamus of the court, 
and felt it could not, or should not, interfere. 

'Tisbury Records, 732-4. 



County of Dukes County 

Nearly a generation grew up, before another similar con- 
dition presented itself to the people, the need of expensive re- 
pairs on the court house to make it fit for the uses of courts 
and the proper transaction of business. Again the ticklish 
period for Edgartown arrived, and the other towns, practised 
in this method of attack, began another campaign to have the 
old buildings abandoned, and the new ones erected at Vine- 
yard Haven. A site was offered for it in that village, and all 
the towns joined Tisbury in the petition for a change of the 
shire town. Committees representing each town besieged the 
General Court in the early spring of 1896, and the fight waxed 
hot and acrimonious. Tisbury having one of its citizens re- 
presenting the Cape District in the Senate, was able to carry 
that body for the bill, but the measure failed in the House. 
This was largely due, it is thought, to the heroic measures of 
Edgartown to save its long primacy. The town unanimously 
voted to pay for the entire cost of the repairs and improve- 
ments to the county buildings, and a special bill to authorize 
her to do this was introduced into the midst of the contention^ 
and at her own expense the day was saved for the old shire 
town. The General Court passed an enabling act to allow 
taxation for this purpose, and the contemplated additions and 
improvements were honorably completed by her in 1897, pro- 
viding a commodious building containing besides the court 
rooms, jury rooms, the several county offices, vaults for the 
preservation of records, a fine library room for the reception 
of law books for the use of the officers of the courts and the 
bar. Thus again the ghost was laid, and peace has happily 
settled down upon the ancient and picturesque shire town. 
Will another generation witness the regular contest when these 
buildings shall have grown into the need of renewal ? 

The following amusing tradition is related in connection 
with the voting of the towns, probably in 1807, on the question 
of a removal of the county seat. Extraordinary means were 
taken to get out a full vote in Edgartown, and the sailing of 
ships was delayed for weeks so that their crews might vote, 
and on the day of the town meeting, it was found that it was 
a close contest between the two factions. Some one suggested 
that there were several voters who were unfortunately deprived 
of their liberty, and were languishing in the town gaol opposite, 
and if the jailer would kindly allow them to step across the 
street and permit them to vote, it would consume but a few 
minutes of the time the prisoners owed to the county. The 

289 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

jailer did not feel that he had the right to allow a general jail 
delivery, even for such a worthy object, though it might save 
the day for Edgartown. It was then proposed that the ballot 
box be carried over to the gentlemen who were incarcerated, 
and thus give them the privilege of freemen. The point of 
order was raised that all ballots must be cast in open meeting, 
and in the presence of the election officials. Astute minds 
found a way out of this awkward dilemma, and a motion was 
made and carried that the meeting adjourn to the jail, where 
the ballot box was passed along the door of each prisoner's 
compartment, and the worthy voters reached through the 
bars and deposited their ballots. 

THE COUNTY JAIL. 

Under the obolescent form of spelling this word gaol and 
goal, there are a sufficient number of references in the records 
to the early existence of a place for the detention of criminals 
to enable us to learn of its origin and history. What is probably 
the first allusion to it may be found in the following extract 
from the records of the General Court : — 

It is ordered by the Court in case there be not a sufficient prison 
built in Edgartown, on Martha's Vineyard within three months after the 
date hereof, they shall pay a fine of ten pounds.' 

This was passed on Sept. 21, 1686, and may have resulted 
in the erection or purchase of a building for the desired purpose. 
Possibly the payment of the fine was deemed the lesser burden, 
as it will appear from a later court order that the county was 
without a "gaol" in March, 1699. The justices passed the 
following decree at that term of court : — 

Ordered, that whereas grate dammage hath been sustained in this 
County and greveance to his Majesties Subjects, for defect of a common 
Goall, that Matthew Mayhew and Benjamin Skiffe Esqrs be desired to 
agree and covenant for the building of a Common goall to be erected att 
Edgartown, and that on their information, a county rate be made for 
payment thereof.' 

It is probable that this action resulted in the building of a 
"Common goall" for Dukes County, but the location of it is 
not known. A guess may be hazarded that it was located on 
the common land of the town, though this is scarcely definite 

'Nantucket Records, II, 38. 

'Dukes County Court Records, Vol. I. 

290 



County of Dukes County 

enough to provoke dissent. The building then erected prob- 
ably lasted upwards of forty years, until its decayed condition 
once more made the "common goall" a subject of judicial 
action. In 1743 John Norton, sheriff of the county, made the 
following representations to the justices about the dilapidated 
state of the building: — 

To the honourable the Justices of the Court of General Sessions of 

the Peace for the County of Dukes County, now sitting on the first 

Tusday of March 1743: 

The Petission of John Norton Sheriff of the County of Dukes County 
Humbly sheweth that whereas I am Sheriff of sd County that I am In 
duty Bound to Lett your honours Know that I am of the opinion that 
there is Not a silScient Prison or Goal In said County, for I am obliged 
to Put Indain & Inglish Criminells and Debtors and men and women 
all together and itt is so Rotten that itt is almost Redy to fall down. 

I therefore Humbly Desire that your Honours will Take itt Into your 
wise Consideration and order that there may Be a sufficient and Lawfull 
Goal or Prison Built as soon as may Be that so the County may not Be 
Lyable to any Cost, Charge or Damage In Any Respect for want thereof: 
which is what is offerred from your Humble Servant to Comand. 

JOHN NORTON.^ 

The reference to ''Debtors" in this document will recall 
to mind the practice at that time, under legal statutes, to im- 
prison persons for debt, unless released by an oath of poverty, 
known as the "Poor Debtor's oath." The justices took official 
cognizance of the "Rotten" condition of the jail, and passed 
the following order in March, 1 743 : — 

Ordered in Court that there be a Prison built in s'd County in the 
year 1744 of 24 foot long & 12 foot wide & 7 foot stud, well built at the 
Countys charge & that in order thereunto John Norton Esq to bargain 
for the same with a Workman to do it or to Enquire & Report to the 
adjournment of this Court whereabouts the Cost will be in order that 
money may be raised to Defrfy the same.^ 

According to a contemporary document, dated 1762, this 
jail had been "lately repaired," and as at that date Tisbury 
became joint proprietor of the county seat, it is probable that 
a second building was erected in that town to accommodate 
prisoners. In 1790 a number of citizens of the county 
petitioned the General Court that the county be exempted from 
the necessity of maintaining two jails, and in answer to this, 
in view of the need of a new jail, the justices of the county 

'Athearn Mss. Library of Congress. 

^Dukes County Court Records. ; 

i 

291 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

were impowercd to determine the place where the new building 
should be erected.^ They decided that "sd Goal be set in 
Tisbury near the Court House in the land of Mr. Barnard 
Case adjoining the Northward corner of his orchard facing 
the Road passing Northward from the sd Court House." 

On the survey of 1795 a "gaol" is shown at West Tis- 
bury, but none at Edgartown, which would indicate the 
final passing of the one in the latter-named town. When the 
courts were finally restored to Edgartown about 1825, as pre- 
viously related, a new jail and a keeper's house were erected, 
adjoining the court house on Main street, and were occupied 
as such till about 1874, when they were sold to private parties. 
The present jail, a two-story wooden building, on the road 
from Edgartown to Oak Bluffs, was begun in 1873 and com- 
pleted the next year. 

SEAL OF THE COUNTY OF DUKES COUNTY. 

In the N. E. Genealogical Register, Vol. XXXVH, 349, 
appears an article by Abner C. Goodell, Esq., with the title 
"Provincial Seals in Massachusetts," representing the result 
of the researches of this gentleman respecting the use of official 
seals in the various counties of the Commonwealth. In dis- 
cussing the seals of the county of Dukes County, he uses the 
following language: "In Dukes County I find occasionally 
used as a seal of the Probate Court an intricate monogram, 
■ the faint and imperfect impressions of which I have been 
unable to decipher. In 171 5 the initials B. S. occur, being 
evidently those of Benjamin Skiffe, who was then Judge of 
Probate. Later I find a mitre sometimes used, and sometimes 
two keys crossed saltierwise among the miscellaneous devices 
appearing upon the papers of the Probate Court; but no evi- 
dence that a seal was specially adopted in any of the courts." 
In a note he suggests that the monogram referred to was a 
double scroll representing the initials J. A., which were the 
initials of Jabez Athearn, for a long time clerk of the courts. 

The author believes he has discovered the ancient official 
seal of the county of Dukes County as originally adopted a 
few years after the settlement of the island of Martha's Vine- 

'A whipping-post was in use in Edgartown during the eighteenth century, and 
frequent references to it occur. There was also a pair of pubhc stocks for various 
offenders, persons who neglected attendance on church worship or other breaches of 
the laws of the time. Usually it was an alternate punishment if the fine remained 
unpaid. ^ 

» 
292 



County of Dukes County 

yard. In Edgartown records, under date of Jan. 22, 1655, 
appears the following entry: ''The common seale of this place 
shall be a bunch of grapes." The entry above quoted respect- 
ing the seal undoubtedly applied to the entire island, the 
''bunch of grapes" being an allusion to the name of Martha's 
Vineyard, and not to Great Harbor, which was then the name 
of Edgartown. 

While on duty in Washington, the author had an oppor- 
tunity of consulting a large volume of manuscripts in the cus- 
tody of the Congressional Library, relating to legal matters 
upon the Vineyard in the eighteenth century. These manu- 
scripts, for purposes of reference in this work have been desig- 
nated as "Athearn Mss.," because they are undoubtedly the 
original drafts of legal documents and other kindred papers 
prepared by James and Jabez Athearn in their official capaci- 
ties as Justices of the Peace and Clerk of the Courts on Martha's 
Vineyard, beginning about 1720 and covering a period of 
about twenty-five years. Many of these documents are origi- 
nals, having signatures and seals, and upon a number of these 
documents issued by Jabez Athearn as clerk, the author found 
a curious seal, a representation of which is herewith given. 
The author took a number of rubbings from them to show the 
design, and with the aid of a glass copied the design. An 
examination of the seal, as shown by the engraving herewith, 
shows that it was probably a rude cutting of the seal adopted 
in 1655 — "A bunch of grapes." The earliest representation 
of this seal in the Athearn Mss. is 1722, and from this the 
drawing was made. 




EARI,Y SEAL OF MARTHA'S VINEYARD, 1655. 

FROM THE ATHBARN MSS. 



293 



History of Martha's Vineyard 



CHAPTER XXI. 

Military History, 1645 -1775. 

the colonial wars. 

The relations which the Vineyard bore to the various 
conflicts in which New York, Massachusetts, and the United 
States have been engaged from the first settlement, with the 
Indians, the French, the British, and our Civil war, will be 
considered from the standpoint of the island as a whole, to 
avoid reduplication in the narration of events in the separate 
histories of each town. In all the wars which have occurred 
in the two and a half centuries elapsed since the first settle- 
ment, the several tow^ns have been represented among the 
troops despatched to the front by the colonial, provincial, or 
national authorities, and it is impracticable to assign the in- 
dividual credits belonging to each. For example, the military 
companies of Tisbury and Chilmark were united under one 
organization for many years, and at other times the military 
command has been combined for the whole island. Soldiers 
from one town would enlist in another, and the naval or pri- 
vateering operations during the Revolution comprised seamen 
taken from all three settlements. For this reason the subject 
of the external military history of the Vineyard will be treated 
as a unit. The internal affairs of each town as exemplified in 
the local militia, during times of peace, as a part of the social 
annals of each town, will be told separately under their respec- 
tive heads. In order, therefore, to properly understand the 
composition of the first military organizations, it will be in- 
teresting to make a short study of the Puritan militia system, 
which will serve as a description of the developments of it in 
each town. 

THE PURITAN MILITIA. 

The laws and customs of the colony of Massachusetts 
Bay, from which most of our settlers came, doubtless furnished 
the basis upon which the miniature army on the Vineyard was 
recruited, and in the absence of any general statutes on the 
subject, enacted here, we shall rely on those adopted by the 
General Court as the model for the organization. 

294 



Military History, 1645-1 775 

Every male between the ages of sixteen and sixty, able to 
bear arms, composed the militia force, but like every law, this 
had its exceptions. Deference was paid to social conditions, 
and a veneration for the great and the good resulted in ex- 
emptions of magistrates, schoolmasters, chirurgeons, clergymen, 
and another class of artisans necessary for the public welfare — 
millers, herdsmen, masters and crews of vessels in the fishing 
seasons. 

The unit of the military organization was the train band, 
the officers of which were a captain or leader, ensign, and a 
company clerk. The honor of an office in the militia was 
much esteemed. John Hull, treasurer of the colony, a thriv- 
ing merchant of Boston, was chosen to be a corporal in 1648, 
and recorded in his diary his praises to God for giving him 
''acceptance and favor in the eyes of His people, and as a fruit 
thereof advancement beyond his deserts."^ 

The militia officers were privileged characters in all the 
walks of life, and at a time when the colonists were given to 
the vanities of extravagant apparel they and their families were 
declared to be exempted from the laws which were directed 
against excess in dress. The arms of the militia were muskets 
and pikes, which were supplied by the soldier himself, as his 
contribution to the general welfare of society.^ 

Of the manual of arms we know but little, and that would 
be impossible to explain, except at length, without the aid of 
illustrations. It will be sufficient to state that the arms were 
carried in the left hand, and the manual of firing was com- 
plicated by the use of the flint and match. For a time there 
was no music but the drum, each company having two, the 
drummers being compelled to serve under a penalty. Gradu- 
ally, this monotonous tattoo was supplemented by the fife and 
bugle. 

We now come to the great Puritan holiday, when the stern 
and dignified pilgrim unbent his rigid mien and sated his 
natural desire for display in the glories of training day. Here, 
gathered upon the town common, was the yeomanry of the 
village, with polished fire-arm, glittering corselets, and savage 
halberds. What a sight to thrill the incarcerated sensibilities 

^Archaeologia Americana, 145. 

^The prices of arms and equipments varied considerably, according to quality. 
In 1633 corselet and pike were rated at one pound ten shillings, and in 1680 a gun and 
loading staff was worth one pou§4 and fifteen shillings. This was old tenor, and cannot 
be accurately computed now, although in general terms it may be stated to be four or 
five times greater value than our present currency. 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

of the fair maidens of that extremely proper century, when 
''light conversation" between the sexes was prohibited by 
statute! It was a day of finery and bravery carefully sand- 
wiched between piety and pies. Beginning and ending with 
prayer the interval was filled with drills, sham battles, and 
inspections. The noon hours were devoted to attacks on the 
larder, bountifully supplied with tarts and cakes from the 
tempting cupboards of Vineyard housewives. The training 
day lingered in the affections of the people for more than two 
centuries, and many of our older citizens of the New England 
States can recall the dying brilliancy of the general muster of 
the militia. The compulsory train bands had perished by 
default, and the volunteer rifle corps, taking their places, 
merged the "fower dayes evry yeare" into one grand encamp- 
ment and muster of the heroic spirits of the time. 

KING PHILIP'S WAR. 

The isolation of the island, and the satisfactory relations 
established between the whites and the natives, all made for 
the maintenance of peace between the rival races. For a 
generation the settlers on the Vineyard, under the direction of 
the Mayhews, had dealt fairly with the Indians in land matters, 
bought their "rights," and paid them for w^ork and material 
in trading. There was not an ideal relationship maintained, 
as the whites continued to regard the aborigine as a "heathen" 
and assumed the patriarchal attitude towards the red man in 
many ways. This was shown in the system of bondage 
adopted to liquidate indebtedness, as told elsewhere, whereby 
limited slavery was accomplished under forms of law. Al- 
though the island Indians were subject to the "kingship" of 
Metacomet, of Philip, of Pokanoket, Rhode Island, it is evi- 
dent from contemporaneous writings that they did not con- 
tinue entirely under his influence when he began his war against 
the English upon the mainland. 

The Indians here were encouraged to adopt the custom 
of military training on the English plan, and before 1675 
Japheth Hannit of Chilmark was made "Captain over a Com- 
pany of his own Nation." It is clear from allusions to this 
that they were under regular control, and when the war broke 
out, it became a subject of some concern to others. The peo- 
ple of Nantucket reported it to the Governor of New York, in 
which "they pretend an ill consequence may arrise upon the 

296 



Military History, 1645-1775 

Indyans Trayning in Armes on Marthas Vineyard."* But 
while it was undoubtedly a hazardous experiment, it caused no 
ultimate harm. The captain of their company was an ally of 
the governor. "In the time of that War, which began in the 
Year 1675," says Experience Mayhew, "and was commonly 
call'd Phillips s War, good Japheth was very serviceable to both 
those of his own Nation and ours on this Island; for being 
firmly set, if possible, to maintain and preserve Peace betwixt 
the English and Indians here ; and being an Indian captain, as 
has already been said, he was imployed by the English to ob- 
serve and report how things went among the Indians.'^^ As a 
precautionary measure the governor of New York, in June, 
1675, dispatched ammunition and arms to the Vineyard, with 
instructions how to manage the existing situation.^ At a sub- 
sequent meeting of the council in September, it was voted to 
send "a Great Gun" to the Vineyard and "the Proclamation 
concerning the Indyans of keeping Watches erecting Block 
Houses &c." This gun was sent in a sloop, which also carried 
one barrel of powder, fifteen muskets and four skeins of match 
for the use of the train band.* The General Court of the 
island in the next month passed the following laws bearing on 
the subject : — 

Ordered That every househoulder have in his house to everie person 
able to bear armes under his charge one pound of powder and four pounds 
of shott or Bullets, and every single person that shall not provide himself 
with powder and shott as aforesaid within one week after warning given 
him by the officer or Lieutenant or shall be found without shall be fined 
5s for the first default los the second and so increasing as his default shall 
be: and shall keep a sufficient gunne well fixed: and it is hereby ordered 
That the Lieutenant shall have power to take all fines which shall be due 
By the Breach of this Order & dispose them according to order. And 
that all persons may be furnished as aforesaid it is here by ordered That 
no person who hath powder and shott more than thrice as much as he is 
Bound to keep by law shall refuse to deliver to each Inglish man belong- 
ing to this Hand who shall demand the same 2s, 6d per pound for powder 
and 5d per pound shott in mony wheat or feathers. 

Ordered That no persons presume to sell barter Give directly or 
Indirectly furnish aney man or persons whatsoever with any quantitie or 
quantities whatsoever of powder or shott without liberty and licenc first 
obtained from under the hands of the Govourner and of his Assistants: 
that they may have the same to shew when they may be caled to give an 

^N. Y. Col. Mss. (Council Minutes), II, (2), p. 51. 

^Indian Converts, 46. 

^N. Y. Col. Documents, III, 254. 

*N. Y. Col. Mss. (Council Minutes), II, (2), p. 51. 

297 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

account what they have done with such powder or shott they hadd in 
'their custodie: uppon penahie of paying for every charge so disposed of 
without licence the full and just summe of five poundes to the treasurie.* 

It was further ordered that the lieutenant, "with the 'sar- 
gent, shall appoint dayes for exercising the companie in armes, 
and any person who shall not make appearance at time ap- 
pointed shall pay i2d, and if shal not appear during the day 
to serve shall pay 3s. to the companie." ^ 

The war was not a long one, though a terrible one while 
it lasted. Beginning in June, 1675, it was ended on Aug. 12, 
1676, when the great son of Massasoit fell at Mount Hope dead 
from a shot leveled at him by a soldier under Benjamin Church's 
command. It caused no disturbance whatever at the Vine- 
yard. Experience Mayhew attributed this happy condition 
to Japheth Hannit. "To his Faithfulness in the Discharge of 
this Trust," he says, "I conceive that the Preservation of the 
Peace of our Island was very much owing, when the People 
of the Main w^re all in War and Blood.'" ^ 

Thus passed the first war, which was but the forerunner 
of a long series of conflicts between the natives and their allies, 
the French of Canada, lasting into the middle of the next cen- 
tury. As stated before, the distance of the island from the 
scenes of these campaigns gave but little opportunity for the 
men of the Vineyard to develop their taste for the glories of 
warfare. Until 1692, the authorities of New York had juris 
diction over such affairs, and they had got along better with 
the Indians than the governments of Massachusetts, and it was 
not till the second Indian war, beginning in 1690, that the 
former colony was called upon to defend her frontier settle- 
ments against the combined strength of the allied forces. 
Meanwhile the local militia organization was kept up, and on 
June 15, 1684, Matthew Mayhew was commissioned as cap- 
tain of the company at Martha's Vineyard, w^hich is presumed 
embraced all the towns on the island.^ Situated upon the 
coast, the Vineyard was frequently the object of attack from 
French cruisers sent out from Canada to commit depredation 
on the commerce of the English settlements, and to inflict 
damage upon their sea-shore villages. 

'Dukes County Deeds, I, 4. 

^Ibid. 

^Indian Converts, 46. 

^N. Y. Col. Mss., Vol. XXXIII. 

298 



Military History, 1645-1775 

FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS. 

On Oct. 20, 1690, Lieutenant-Governor Leisler wrote to 
the Earl of Shrewsbury that "a French Barq Songo and 2 
sloops crusing near Long Island, making some spoil on Mar- 
tins Vineyard, Nantuckett and Block Island Alarming the 
Inhabitants, having no ports of force. "^ Rumors of this sally 
of the enemy reached the neighboring colonies to the south 
with the usual exaggeration of such tales. "Report here from 
Pensilvania," writes a Maryland gentleman, "says that seven 
French shipps of Warr have on Martins Vineyard and Block 
Island putt all to fire and sword without mercy or distinction."^ 
However, some of these dangers wxre real. The coast was 
infested with these sea marauders, and the only defence against 
them was a sort of breastwork, probably mounting the "great 
gun" sent thither during King Philip's war. On Aug. 20, 
1 69 1, Andrew Newcomb was reported as "Commander of the 
fortification: who had such number of men as occasionally 
were ordered by the Chief Magistrate."^ It is not known 
where this "fort" was located, but, considering the short range 
of guns in those days, it was probably set on Pease's Point to 
defend the village. The expedition to Quebec, in 1690, being 
a Massachusetts affair, did not concern the Vineyard, and no 
soldiers from the island were attached to this disastrous mili- 
tary operation under Phips. One soldier, who later came to 
reside here, Jonathan Lambert, was credited with service in it, 
and received the reward given to those who participated. At 
the time he was a resident of the Cape. The last connection 
the Vineyard had with the war at this period, when under the 
jurisdiction of New York, w^as to contribute to the defense of 
Albany, the object of assault by the French and Indians.* By 
the charter of Oct. 7, 1691, the affairs of the Vineyard from 
that date, belong to the history of Massachusetts, but it was 
not for many months that it was known by the parties involved 
in the change. It made no difference with the activities of the 
fleet of war vessels constantly appearing in the sound. A 
contemporary document describes the annoyances to which 
the island was subjected. The writer tells of the "Continuall 
Charge not only for securing of themselves but mainey times 

'N. Y. Col. Documents, III, 752. 
^Maryland Archives, VIII, 199. 
'N. Y. Col. Mss., XXXVII, 230. 
^N. Y. Col. Documents, IV, 2. 

* 299 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

for succor and defence of such shipping from most partes hav- 
ing commerce and trade here," and that they had not only 
armed themselves, but the Indians, "supplying them with 
ammunition and provisions while the enemy hath been on the 
coast." He said that "all such charges hath since that tim 
been wholly on the inhabitants to the value of many hundred 
pounds and often more for securing the shipping laden with 
provisions and other shipping bound to boston & adjacent 
towns, it being beneath both an English and a Cristian spirit 
to suffer the takeing of such vessels when it might be by us 
hindred, beside the often charge of sendin botes to inform 
vessls coming in from sea of the enemies being on this coast. "^ 
It will thus be seen that the Vineyard was a centre of maritime 
activity on the part of the French. Nantucket suffered in the 
same way during this period. But being now nearer the home 
government better protection was soon obtained. 

Immediately upon his arrival as governor. Sir William 
took measures to defend the province from invasion by the 
French and Indians, who, encouraged by the failure of his 
expedition against Quebec in 1690, were renewing their in- 
cursions upon the out-lying settlements of Massachusetts. 
The two frigates, the Sorlings and the Newport, of the 
English Navy, detailed for constant duty on this coast, were 
not adapted to pursue small craft in shoal waters, and hence 
the project of fitting out an armed vessel of light draught for 
the protection of vessels in Vineyard Sound, was started by 
the governor and council as early as March 7, 1692-3. Five 
hundred pounds was voted for "building and fitting of a small 
vessel mounted with ten guns and a suitable number of oars." 
This act was passed Dec. 11, 1693, and by the first of June 
of the next year she was ready for service.^ 

Various expeditions "to the Eastward," meaning into the 
Province of Maine, or New Brunswick, were sent by the au- 
thorities of Massachusetts to assault the Indians and their 
allies in their haunts in the forest fastnesses of that region. 
It is not known that any men went from the Vineyard before 
1700, but it was the custom to enlist "trusty" natives in the 
companies mustered for these campaigns, and we have the 
record of one Sam Quobiscum, alias Sam Nopye, "a Martin's 

^Mass. Archives, LXX, 298. 

^Acts and Resolves of Mass., VII, 14. The ostensible purpose of their act was the 
protection of commerce, but see the letter of Governor Phips to Governor Fletcher of 
New York, in Documentary History of N. Y., IV, 5, 6. 

300 



Military History, 1645-1775 

Vineyard Indian," who was under command of Jethro Church, 
also an Indian in Major Benjamin Church's regiment in 
1696, on one of these expeditions/ It was a common practice 
in all the towns of the colony to employ Indians for this pur- 
pose. These continual expeditions caused great expense to the 
towns, and none felt it more than the Vineyard, for under New 
York their taxes were very light. At the General Court, 
holden in 1695, an act was passed " to provide means for the 
support of the government, for a vigorous persecution of the 
War against the French and Indian enemy and rebels," and 
for other purposes. A tax of ;^2333, 9s., and 3d. was levied 
upon the polls and estates. Upon Edgartown ;^4i, Chilmark 
;^2i, 6s., 8d., Tisbury ;^2i, 6s., 8d. The whole was to be paid 
on or before May 29, 1696. 

Nothing of interest to local annals occurred for ten years 
in the military affairs of the colony. In May, 1707, twenty- 
three transports and whaleboats, convoyed by the Deptford, 
Captain Stuckley, and the galley Province, Captain Southack, 
made an unsuccessful attempt against Port Royal (now Annap- 
olis), Nova Scotia. The land troops were under the com- 
mand of Colonel John March. This was unsuccessful, and 
two years later another expedition against that place proved 
similarly disastrous. In the last one John Skiff, probably son 
of Nathaniel Skiff of Chilmark, was attached to the company 
of Captain Matthew Austin of the New Hampshire contingent.^ 
On the i8th of September, 1710, however, a fleet of thirty-six 
vessels of war and transports, under the command of Captain 
Nicholson, sailed from Boston for a third attack on Port Royal, 
which place had been returned to France by treaty. The ex- 
pedition arrived before the town on the 26th of September, 
and on the first of October the forts were carried by storm. 
In honor of the reigning Queen of England the name of the 
town was changed to Annapolis. In the last of these three 
expeditions Nicodemus Skuhwhannan, a Tisbury Indian, lost 
his life.^ Flushed with victory, Nicholson went to England to 
urge further operations against the French, and as a result of 
his representations, a fleet of fifteen war vessels and forty trans- 
ports, under the command of Vice-Admiral Walker, appeared 
in Boston harbor in June, 1711, where it took aboard about 
seven thousand troops, regulars and provincials, and on the 

'2 Maine Hist. Soc. Coll., V, 507-9. 

^N. H. State Papers. 

^Sewall Diary, II, 432; comp. Indian Converts, 103. 

301 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

last of July cleared for Quebec. The loss of eight ships, with 
884 men, in a fog, while ascending the St. Lawrence, caused 
the abandonment of the expedition, and the vessels of the navy 
made sail for England, while the colonial contingent steered 
away for Boston. This disaster plunged Massachusetts and 
the other provinces so deeply in debt, that for a generation they 
did not recover from the effects of it. In this unfortunate 
enterprise one of our Chilmark youth, Nathan, probably son 
of Nathaniel Skiff, "went out as Serjeant under Maj. Robert- 
son, and being in his return taken sick, which Sickness was so 
Greavious, that he got no further whomeward than Dorchester 
before he Lay wholy By it and of the same sickness thare 
Dyed."^ It is not known that there were any other Vineyard 
soldiers connected with the Port Royal campaigns, or the 
fruitless expedition to Quebec. 

In 1 740 an expedition against the Spanish West Indies was 
organized, under Admiral Edward Vernon, to which Massa- 
chusetts contributed five hundred men, and received back not 
more than fifty, the remainder having perished of tropical 
diseases. One company went from Plymouth county, but it is 
not known that any soldiers went from this island. 

THE LOUISBTJRG EXPEDITION. 

We now come to the great campaign in which New Eng- 
land valor found opportunity to display itself, under talented 
leadership, and the glory of it was celebrated in song and 
story for generations — the siege of Louisburg, Cape Breton. 
An old narrative poem thus begins the account : — 

"Come all New England galant Lads 
And Lend to me an ear 
And of your Brthem mighty acts 
I will in short declar 
brave Peprell with three thousand men 
perhaps some hundreds more 
did Land the very first of May 
Upon Cape Briton Shore." 

In a fleet of fourteen vessels of war and nearly an hundred 
transports, the troops commanded by Colonel William Pep- 
sin the Dorchester buying ground is a stone erected to Nathan Sriffe(sic) who 
"Died Oct. the 17, 1711, in the 20th year of his age," probably erected by his uncle 
Benjamin, whose petition for his pay as a soldier, after his death, is among the Massa- 
chusetts Archives. 

302 



Military History, 1645-1775 

perrell of Kittery, Me., embarked for the rendezvous at Cape 
Canso, Nova Scotia, under the charge of Captain Edward 
Tyng, as commodore of the sea forces. At the rendezvous 
the expedition was joined by an auxiliary force, detailed from 
the royal navy, consisting of six frigates and five ships. The 
combined fleet arrived before Louisburg on the last day of 
April, 1745, having been detained by ice, and immediately 
began the investment of the place. It was the modern fortress 
of that region, and for a quarter of a century the French had 
been strengthening it until at this time it was called the second 
Dunkirk. It was garrisoned by sixteen hundred men, and 
armed with one hundred and one cannon, seventy-six swivels 
and six mortar, and the local conditions afforded such a natural 
aid to the artificial defenses that it was assumed it could be 
held by two hundred men against five thousand. Being with- 
out siege guns the provincials supplied this deficiency by cap- 
turing an outwork, called the grand battery, and when this 
was accomplished the investment was completed without 
bloodshed. For six weeks the besiegers hammered away at 
the fortress, without interruption, and on June 15, when the 
French commander learned of the capture of the long-expected 
relief ship Vigilant, of sixty-four guns, a flag of truce was sent 
out. On the 17th the fortress, with six hundred regulars and 
thirteen hundred volunteers, was surrendered, and the vic- 
torious Pepperrell and his raw New England troops marched 
in. Another verse of the ballad above quoted describes the 
joy of the besieged at their deliverance : — 

"The gentelmen and Lades tou 
They did carress our men 
For having them deUvered 
From worse than Lawyer's den." 

The return of the troops to Boston, with the report of the 
fall of the last menace of the French to New England, was the 
signal for the most extravagant demonstrations of satisfaction. 
Pepperrell was knighted by the king, and thus became the 
first baronet of New England birth, while one of the captains 
of the fleet was commissioned with that rank in the royal 
navy. This combined campaign of the troops from New Eng- 
land, and the naval forces of England marked the high-water 
mark of the relations between the home government and the 
colonists. How many Vineyard men took part in this suc- 
cessful campaign is not known, owing to the absence of a 



Histoiy of Martha's Vineyard 

complete set of muster rolls in the state archives^ The name 
of Sergeant Joseph Luce has been found among those pub- 
lished, and there occur the names of Lieutenant Peter West 
and Thomas West, all Tisbury names, doubtless belonging 
to our island. According to tradition, young Peter Pease 
(afterwards the successful whaler), at the age of thirteen, was 
a cabin boy in the fleet which accompanied Pepperrell to 
Louisburg.^ That there were many more of our Vineyard 
men in this celebrated siege is probably true.^ 

The following years were not so full of activity. Syl- 
vanus Luce of Tisbury died at Cape Breton, between 1746 
and 1748, probably one of the garrison left at Louisburg after 
its surrender. In 1748 William Jernegan served as a soldier 
in one of the "Northern" campaigns. In his autobiography 
he says "at the age of 19 I was impressed to go into the Army 
to defend the inhabitants of the state of Maine against the 
Indian savage of the then wilderness, who was daily killing 
and sculping the people there, and when I was impressed, a 
number of others was impressed in the town, but for some 
reason or other causes were chiefly discharged. I then com- 
plained very hard to the commanding officer, saying, 'I had 
no father, no mother, brother or sister, nor any friend to in- 
tercede for me ; for this cause will you force me into the army ? ' 
The officers reply to me was, ' You are the only person to go, 
for you have no one to cry for you.' (O, cruel sentence!) 
So I went into the army, and through the goodness of God, 
returned home the year following." 

In 1748 the fortress of Louisburg was ceded back to 
France by England under a general treaty of peace, and ten 
years later the work of Pepperrell had to be done all over again. 
Thus matters went on for several years, without open conflict 
between the two great rivals for the colonial supremacy of this 
continent. The struggle could not be longer delayed. Every 
outbreak in Europe was a cause for some reprisal on this side 
of the Atlantic by one or the other of the belligerents. There 
was "fight" in the air. To the Puritans of New England 

'.The Society of Colonial Wars, in the Year Book of 1895, published a roster of 
officers, found in London. The N. E. Historic-Genealogical Register for 1870, printed 
some fragmentary rolls. The Mass. Hist. Society has published a number of the 
Pepperrell papers. 

^Providence Journal, July 20, 1826. 

^There was a Captain Mayhew, commander of the sloop Union, attached to the 
fleet of New England vessels taking part in this campaign. This is a name known only 
on the Vineyard at this period, and it undoubtedly belongs to one of our island men, but 
it is not possible to identify him. (Mass. Hist. Soc. Proceedings, 2d series, XI, 442.) 



Military History, 1645-1773 

the Frenchman with his "Popish" rehgion was little better, 
if any, than his "heathen" ally, the Indian, and the average 
Yankee desired to drive both of them from the haunts of men 
on this continent. The return of Louisburg to the French 
did not please the people here, and they remembered that 
Quebec still sat in unconquered grandeur on the St. Lawrence, 
a monument to numberless failures of their troops. They 
began to gird themselves for the final assault all along the line. 
In the fall of 1755, Tisbury looked after the stock of ammuni- 
tion, and passed the following vote : — 

Also at sd Meeting it was Put to Vote whether or no the sum of 
£6 — 13 — 4d Should be Raised by way of Rate to Defrey the Charges of 
the selectmen of sd Town for Procuring a Town Stock of Powder and 
other nesesary, as the Law Directs that Towns be furnished with & it 
Passed in the affermitive. 

THE CROWN POINT CAMPAIGN. 

At this time the militia of the Vineyard was better organ- 
ized than ever before, under the colonelcy of Zaccheus Mayhew 
of Chilmark as the ranking officer, John Norton of Edgartown 
as lieutenant-colonel, Gershom Cathcart of Tisbury as captain, 
of the combined company of foot for Tisbury and Chilmark. 
The martial spirit was dominant throughout the island, as 
it was elsewhere in New England, stimulated by the successes 
of recent years, and the conviction that one great task yet 
confronted Protestant institutions, — the expulsion of France 
from power in North America. This was no dream of enthu- 
siasts, but the sober purpose of men as religiously zealous as 
were their opponents. France was constantly encroaching on 
the northern frontier, and had already established her out- 
posts on the shores of Lake Champlain. Her vessels were 
continually ranging up and down the coast in a hostile attitude. 
In the fall of 1755, it was reported that "a vessel with French- 
men on board that had lately clear'd out from a port in New 
England for the West Indies has been in divers harbours at 
or near Marthas Vineyard with intent, as is suspected, to pro- 
cure provisions for the French inhabitants at Louisburgh."^ 
Doubtless every act of the French was under suspicion. They 
were led by an able officer, Louis Joseph Montcalm, just a_p- 
pointed commander of the forces in Canada. The English 
army was directed by General James Abercrombie, a Scotch- 

*Acts and Resolves, Province of Mass. Bay, III, S84, Nov. 5, 1755. 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

man, who determined upon a campaign directed against the 
enemy in his own territory, at Crown Point, New York, be- 
tween Lakes George and Champlain. Acting in conjunction 
with the governor of Massachusetts, a call was issued for 
levies, from the local militia in the several counties. Brigadier 
John Winslow of the provincial forces, accordingly sent the 
following letter to Colonel Mayhew, directing him to prepare 
his contingent for immediate service : — 

Boston, April 15, 1756. 
Sir 

His Excellency Governor Shirley having Directed me to require an oflScer 
Commissioned for Crown Point Expedition to attend at the Impres on 
the 2 2d inst and to take such Persons as are Fit for that service under his 
care and Conduct them to the Place of Rendezvous, 

In obedience to Those orders I have Directed Capt Peter West of 
Colo Thachers Regiment to repair to your District and to Take under his 
Command both volunteers and Impresses men and march them to this 
Place by the fourth Day of May next that they may Receive their arms 
and Blankets. Am with regards your very Humble servant 

JOHN WINSLOW.' 

The colonel set to work at once to accomplish the order, 
and after a month's time despatched the following reply, 
showing the difficulties he had met with in the performance of 
his duty: — 

Chillmarck May the 15, 1756. 
May it pleas your Excellency: 

Imediately upon the Receipt of your warrant I caused the Enlistments 
of souldiers In the severall companies within my Regiment for the present 
expidition against Crown Point to be returned to me which appeared to 
be but five, viz four out of Capt Cathcarts Company in Tisbury & one 
of my Company in Chillmarck, to which number I added forty & then 
apportioned the whole upon the several Companies according to the num- 
ber of souldiers they severally contained & ordered Col Norton to rais 
twenty men out of his company in Edgartown & to Capt Cathcart to rais 
Eleven out of his company in Tisbury & ordered nine to be raised out of 
Chillmarck Company which with the five before enlisted would have com- 
pleated the number sent for & although I have done the utmost of my 
Power I have yet one man from Edgartown which is their whole propor- 
tion makes but eighteen in the whole which I have delivered to Capt Peter 
West as I was directed. 

I am with due Regard your Excellencys 
Most Humble Servt 

ZACK. MAYHEW.'' 

It will be noticed that Captain West was already attached 
to the regiment of another colonel, on the mainland, a circum- 

'Mass. Archives, XCIV, 148. 
^Ibid., 228. 

306 



Military History, 1645-1775 

stance which makes it difficult to follow always the military 
history of the Vineyard soldiers. The same condition existed 
during the Revolutionary war, when a large number enlisted 
from towns on the cape and in Plymouth county to swell other 
town quotas. In a letter dated two months later, Colonel 
Alayhew gives us further particulars of his difficulties, ascrib- 
ing the blame to the absence of available men, in general, and 
to the apathy of Edgartown in particular. The following is 
his letter: — 

Marthas Vineyard, July 5th 1756. 
May it pleas your Honour 
Upon the receipt of a warrant Isued from His Excellency Will'm Shirley 
Esq., Capt General 8z: Comander in Chief &c., I imediately as therein 
Directed sent for Enlistments of souldiers in the several Companies within 
my Regiment for the present Expedition against Crown Point to be re- 
turned to me & found them to contain five in all one out of Chillmarck 
Company & four out of Tisbiiry to which number I added forty & then 
proportioned the sum total amongst the several companies according to 
the numbers of the souldiers they formerly contained & then Lessened 
the proportion of each Company by the number that had Enlisted out of 
it & then Imediately sent a warrant to Colo John Norton requiring him 
to Impres twenty men & to Capt Gershom Cathcart for Eleven men out 
of his Company in Tisbury & nine out of my Company in Chillmark 
which nine I procured & received of Capt Cathcart eight & of Colo Norton 
but one, which eighteen men I delivered to Capt Peter West as I was 
ordered all which I gave yr Honour an account of before but am Informed 
that My Letter miscarried although I sent it (as I thought), by a safe hand 
the Reverend Mr .... And upon receipt of your Honnours warrant of 
the 24th of May last I Imediately sent warrants to Col Norton and Capt 
Cathcart Requiring the number of them that was wanting to Compleat 
the number first sent for & to make Returns to me as soon as Posable 
that I rnought send the men as I am Directed but I have had no return 
from them as yet but am informed they have had pres warrants out ever 
since but can by no means procure them men. There being so many in 
the Coste service Sr at?sea upon the whailing desine & so in that have 
bin imprest have paid their fine & so having to the utmost of my endeavor 
to procure the men sent for I now dispare of procuring of them untill such 
time as our men com back from sea. I am with Due Regard 

Your Hours 

Most Humble Servt 

ZACCHEUS MAYHEW.^ 

As stated by him, he had been able to get together eighteen 
men, ten of whom were Indians, and the following pay roll 
gives us the names of the men who marched from the Vine- 
yard the first week in May, 1755, to the rendezvous at Boston: — 

'Mass. Archives, XCIV, 265. 



History of Martha's Vineyard 









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Military History, 1645-1775 

This was the second expedition to Crown Point, the first 
having been undertaken the previous year under General 
Sir Wilham Johnson, and had been unsuccessful. A battle 
was fought on Sept. 8, 1755, at Lake George, which "Fild the 
Cuntry with So Much Discorce," writes a diarist of the period, 
because of its disastrous results. The success of our arms 
had not been all that could have been wished. Braddock 
had been defeated on the Monongahela, and when the spring 
of 1756 opened the present expedition was started to retrieve 
the fallen fortunes of British armies. This campaign in its 
turn proved fruitless. The Marquis de Montcalm began his 
American career by destroying the English forts at Oswego. 
The Earl of London also came over this year to take charge 
of the war for the English, but he did nothing effective. The 
home government sent out reinforcements frequently, yet the 
men generally accomplished but little practically. "I dread 
to hear from America," exclaimed Pitt, as the news of dis- 
asters followed in these years. The raw levies marched back 
wearily, through the November snows, many of them pock- 
marked from the epidemic of small-pox, which invalided scores, 
and the French still held their positions of vantage. In the 
following year, nothing daunted by previous failures another 
assault on the intrenched camps of the soldiers of France was 
projected, and the following soldiers are credited to the Vine- 
yard early in 1757: — • 



[Mass. Archives, XCV, 172.] 
Pay Roll of CAPT. PETER WEST'S Company. 



Boston February 14, 1757. 



Peter West 
Robert Manter 
Jeremiah Mayhew 
James Hilman 
Thomas Purges 
Joseph Ray 
Israel Butler 
David Chapman 
John Daggett 
Isaac Lewis 
Daniel Norton 
Edward Crowell 
Wm. Armstrong 
James Butler 
James Bunker 



Captain 


Tisbury 


Lieutenant 


Tisbury 


Lieutenant 


Tisbury 


Sergeant 


Chilmark 


Sergeant 


Chilmark 


Sergeant 


Tisbury 


Clerk 


Tisbury 


Private 


Chilmark 


Corporal 


Tisbury 


Corporal 


Tisbury 


Corporal 


Chilmark 


Corporal 


Chilmark 


Drummer 


Chilmark 


Private 


Chilmark 


Private 


Chilmark 



309 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

[Mass. Archives, XCVI, i6.] 
Pay Roll of CAPT. PETER WEST'S Company, 1757. 
February 12, to Octo. 21. 



Peter West 


Captain 


Tisbury 


Michael Dormont, 


2d Lieutenant 


Tisbury 


Robert Manter 


Sergeant 


Tisbury 


John Daggett 


Corporal 


Tisbury 


Daniel Butler 


Private 


Tisbury 


James Bunker 


Private 


Chilmark 


Daniel Luke 


Private 


Tisbury 


John Luke 


Private 


Tisbury 



In the campaign of 1757 the English troops garrisoned 
at Fort Edward were attacked on July 6, and it is probable 
that during the fighting at this place the Vineyard company, 
under the command of Captain West, took part in the defence 
of the frontier stronghold against the assaults of the soldiers 
of France. A contemporary picture of life at home at this time 
during these hostilities, is afforded in a letter written by Solo- 
mon Athearn to his son-in-law, John Pope, then living in 
Lebanon, Conn. 

Dear Children : — 
After my immovable regards to you & your little daughters these may 
inform you I am in parfect health blessed be God: your brothers & sis- 
ters are all well: saving Hanna who was delivered in child bed four days 
ago, of a desirable son but I hope will be raised up again. I have nothing 
to right but wars & rumors of wars & great broils (?).... Lydia re- 
mains .... & no help to her .... Tisbury is in an unsettled order & 
we know not when 'twill be better: It is a time of health in general here. 
Ant Skiff is yet alive and remains in same state of body as in years past. 
I remain (in) single life and know not if ever (it) will be otherwise: children 
and grandchildren looking to me for my helpe continually: I greatly desire 
to see you but know not the time when: Taxes are very (hard) because 
money is very scarce. Our men are called into the war & many are taken 
by war; the sword of the wild men is against us; but our hope is in God. 

May the God of peace be with you & carry you thru all your afflic- 
tions is the prayer of your affectionate Father till Death. 

SOLOMON ATHAN. 
Tisbury on Marthas Vineyard, Sept 27th 1757 

Early in the spring of 1758, another campaign was in- 
augurated under the leadership of General James Abercrombie, 
with the same objects in view, and the same points to be at- 
tacked. The following soldiers were credited to our island 
contingent : — 

310 



Military History, I 645- 1775 

[Mass. Archives, XCVI, i8.] 
Pay Roll of CAPTAIN PETER WEST'S Company, 





March 17, 1758. 




Peter West 


Captain 


Tisbury 


Michael Dormont, 


2d Lieutenant 


Tisbury 


Robert Manter 


Ensign 


Tisbury 


John Daggett 


Corporal 


Tisbury 


Daniel Butler 


Private 


Tisbury 


James Bunker 


Private 


Tisbury 


Daniel Luke 


Private 


Tisbury 


John Luke 


Private 


Tisbury 



It will be noted that all are given as residents of Tisbury/ 
The campaign of 1758 was in two parts — Amherst captured 
Louisburg, July 27, while Abercrombie directed his operations 
against the fort at Ticonderoga, called Carillon by the French. 
The army under General Abercrombie made a combined attack 
on July 8, but the defenders successfully withstood it, and it 
remained in their hands for another year. Among those who 
took part in this expedition, not named in the muster rolls, 
was Barachiah Bassett of Chilmark. Doubtless there were 
a number of others as the rolls are of one company only. 
Robert Manter got his promotion through the death of the 
lieutenant of his company, but failed to secure the pay of his 
new rank. He thereupon preferred the following petition to 
the General Court : — 

He recites that he was in the service of the province as 
sergeant under the command of Captain Peter West in the 
regiment commanded by Col. Joseph Frye, "and in the month 
of July last The Twentyeth Day Michael Dormet our Lieut 
was kill'd by the Enemy and on the i8th Day of August fol- 
lowing by Regimenta.ll orders" he was appointed "Ensigne 
in s'd Company but has never received the pay of his rank." 
This petition was dated on March 13, and granted on the i8th 
of the same month. The town of Tisbury reimbursed him 
for poll taxes that year as he "was in service in the Quality 
of a Left in the Crown Point Expedition." 

As a curious picture of the time, the experience of Bara- 
chiah Bassett, on his way home from this campaign, related 

'In a list of soldiers supposed to belong to a company under Major Richard God- 
frey, of Col. Timothy Ruggles' regiment at Lake George, this year, are the names of 
Ep(hrai)m Pease, Barnabas Allen, and Ezra Allen, but it is not known that they were 
the Vineyard men of those names. (G. R., LVIII, 142.) 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

by himself, is here inserted to show how much the idea of 
paternaHsm was a part of the Hfe of the colonists : — 

To his Excellency Thomas Pownall Esq. Capt Gener'll & Gov- 
ernour in Chief in and over his Majesties Province of the Massa- 
chusetts Bay in New England. 

The Humble Petition of Barachia Bassett of Chilmark on Marthas 
Vineyard sheweth that your Petitioner in the year past [1758] was in the 
Expedition under the Command of his Excellency General Abercromby 
and your petitioner hopes he was not an unprofitable Soldier, but so it 
happened that your Petitioner in his return home from the army having 
with others Hired a Vessel at Albany to Return home was obliged to Take 
into s'd Vessel a man then Indisposed and who it afterward proved had 
the Small pox and by Taking s'd man into s'd Vessel your Petitioner un- 
happily Took the Small pox whereby your Petitioner beside undergoing 
much Pain danger & loss of Time has been out much charge and cost an 
account where of your Petitioner hath herewith Exhibbited. Now your 
Petitioner prays that your Excellency and Honours would consider of your 
Petitioners case and order him pay for such expenses as he has been out 
in his sickness out of the Treasury or other wise to relieve your Petitioner 
as you shall in your great Wisdom think fit and your Petitioner as in Duty 
bound shall ever pray. 

BAR'IAH BASSETT.i 

Among the soldiers engaged in other expeditions to Canada 
in 1758, from the Vineyard, were John Megee, Jr., and William 
Armstrong of Chilmark, James Butler and Shubael Harding 
of Tisbury, John Holley and Ansel Norton of Edgar town. It 
is not known where they served — possibly under General 
Amherst. 

THE SIEGE OF QUEBEC. 

The year 1759 opened with the conditions remaining in 
favor of the French, who, under Montcalm, had held all their 
outposts. It was to be a year pregnant with results. The 
British armies had been placed in the command of General 
James Wolfe, a young and frail soldier, a subordinate under 
Amherst at Louisburg, who undertook the task which had 
staggered his predecessors, while high on the rock of Cape 
Diamond the citadel of Quebec towered proudly under white 
banners of New France. On the Vineyard the system of 
impressment for the campaign was continued, and the follow- 
ing roll shows the soldiers in Colonel Mayhew's regiment in 
the spring of that year : — 

^Mass. Archives, LXXVIII, 231. Petition dated March 3, 1759. 



Military History, 1645-1775 

[Mass. Archives, XCVII, 140.] 
Muster Roll of COLONEL ZACCHEUS MAYHEW'S Regiment, 
April 13, 1759. 



John Megee, Jr. 


20 


Chilmark 


Benjamin Skiffe, Jr. 


22 


Chilmark 


Hillard Mayhew 


17 


Chilmark 


William Armstrong 


30 


Chilmark 


Silvanus Pease 


30 


Chilmark 


Jeremiah Manter 


28 


Tisbury 


Bethuell Luce 


18 


Tisbury 


Timothy Luce 


55 


Tisbury 


Abijah Luce 


21 


Tisbury 


James Butler 


21 


Tisbury 


William Weeks 


18 


Tisbury 


Shubael Harden 


37 


Tisbury 


Gershom Dunham 


23 


Tisbury 


Samuel Chase 


25 


Tisbury 


Peter Whelden 


26 


Edgartown 


John Holley 


42 


Edgartown 


Jonathan Pease 


52 


Edgartown 


Samuel Steward 


30 


Edgartown 


Ansel Norton 


21 


Edgartown 


Robert Hamit 


21 


Edgartown 


William Bridge 


57 


Edgartown 


Thomas Norris 


29 


Edgartown 


Cornelius Ripley 


23 


Edgartown 



The campaign in New York was under the leadership of 
the victorious Amherst, who besieged the French at Ticon- 
deroga, no longer under Montcalm's military skill, and on 
July 27, he surprised the defenders and captured that cele- 
brated stronghold. Meanwhile General Wolfe, on July 31, 
delivered an attack on the Gibraltar of America, the fortress 
of Quebec, defended by Montcalm, who had transferred his 
post thither, and the youthful British general suffered defeat, 
but he had found his quarry, and he was not daunted by this 
reverse. It is not known whether any men from the Vineyard 
were in this last and glorious campaign, at the final scenes at 
Quebec. The following letter shows what was done here in 
providing our quota of men : — 



Sir 



Chilmarck April the 15, 1759. 



I have in obedience to the Law 81 his Excellencys warant & Direction to 
me given don the utmost of My Indeavor to procure the men sent for yet 
when the Day appointed for Mustering the Men com som of the men re- 



313 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

turned by the ofl&cers appeared infirm & in no maner abel in body for the 
service which I could not except of so that there is yet nine men more 
wanting to complet the number sent for viz seven out of Colo Nortons 
Company in Edgartown & two out of Capt Cathcarts Company in Tis- 
bury & whereas there was the names of som men returned to me by Colo 
Norton which did not appear I therefore Imediately sent him Expres 
order to serve those who had Deserted & to Complet the Number assigned 
him. 

I also ordered Capt Cathcart to procure two men to complet the num- 
ber assigned him & I hope they will be procured but I fear Not soon 
anuffe to go with the Rest for Capt Mayhew I hear designes to March 
tomorrow with the men he has already received. 

There is one man viz ben toby who was Inlisted by Capt Cathcart & 
past muster & has received his bounty of Me but Col James Otis De- 
manding of him as belonging to his Regiment vmder his Command there- 
fore I directed Capt Cathcart to procure a Man in his room otherwise 
Capt Cathcart would have wanted but one man to Compleat the number 
assigned him to rais. 

We are under a grate Disadvantage heer by Reason the most of our 
old able bodied Efective men ware gon to sea before the Order came to 
warn the training. 

I am sir 

Your humble servant 

ZACH. MAYHEW 
To Col Willm Brattle 
Assistant Govern our.' 

As usual there were men from the island who enlisted 
elsewhere this year. In the roll of Massachusetts soldiers 
landed at Halifax on May ii, 1759, occurs the name of Corpo- 
ral John Daggett of the Vineyard, in Captain Josiah Thacher's 
company, of Col. John Thomas' regiment, and doubtless this 
is but one of a number similarly attached to other companies. 

It is not known, as above stated, that any troops from the 
Vineyard were in the army of Wolfe before Quebec.^ The 
only company that went from here, whose rolls have been 
preserved, did garrison duty at Annapolis Royal, in Colonel 
Hoar's detachment. The captain was Jeremiah Mayhew of 
Chilmark, and the muster roll of his soldiers shows the fol- 
lowing names of Vineyard men, in addition to a number of 
Indians : — 

'Mass. Archives, LXXVIII, 440. 

^t is a matter of common knowledge that soldiers who fought in these wars are 
credited by descendants with service "at Quebec," usually under Wolfe, as his vic- 
tory closed the long campaigns of several years, and "Quebec" gave the name to the 
general struggle in that sense. Similarly, soldiers of the Revolution are said to have 
been in Washington's "Body Guard," irrespective of any evidence showing in what 
capacity they served. 



Military History, 1645-1775 

[Mass. Archives, XCVII, 277.] 

Pay Roll of CAPT. JEREMIAH MAYHEW'S Company. 

March-November, 1759 



John Mege 


Ensign 


Chilmark 


'Jeremiah Manter 


Sergeant 


Tisbury 


Hillyard Mayhew 


Sergeant 


Chilmark 


Benjamin Skiffe 


Corporal 


Chilmark 


Gershom Dunham 


Corporal 


Tisbury 


Abijah Luce 


Corporal 


Tisbury 


Ansel Norton 


Private 


Edgartown 


Bethuel Luce 


Private 


Tisbury 


Cornelius Ripley 


Private 


Edgartown 


Charles Parker 


Private 


Edgartown 


James Butler 


Private 


Tisbury 


Robert Hamit 


Private 


Tisbury 



On the night of September 12, Wolfe's army crossed the 
St. Lawrence several miles above the city of Quebec, and on 
the morning of the next day were drawn up in battle formation 
on the Plains of Abraham. Montcalm committed the error 
of leaving; his fortress to srive battle. In the fortunes of the 
struggle between the contending forces both of the gallant 
commanders fell, mortally wounded, and the demoralized 
troops of the defender of the fortress were put to rout, and 
Quebec fell before the victorious charges of the British ranks. 
With the fall of Montcalm and Quebec fell the French power 
in North America, except in the distant and almost unknown 
regions of the territory of Louisiana. In this definite result 
the men from Martha's Vineyard contributed their share of 
blood and treasure in battle, sickness, and death. Perhaps the 
finest figure during this long series of campaigns to gain the 
mastery over the French was that of Captain Peter West of 
Tisbury. He was the fifth son of Abner and Joan (Look) 
West, born at Homes Hole, July 21, 1718, and as he grew to 

'The Humble Petition of Jeremiah Manter of Tisbury, in Dukes County, sheweth 
That your Petitioner Did Enlist himself in to the Province service in April in the year 
1759 under the Command of Capt Jeremiah Mayhew & Did Duty as a Sergt att the 
Garrison att Annopolis Royal In Coll Hoars Detachment And there Continued in the 
Service of the Province Untill the 26th Day of February last when he was Dismissed 
But did not Receive the Bounty granted by the Government for the Soldiers before he 
came home & upon application to the Treasurer was Informed That The Grant made 
for that Garrison was all sent Down For them before he came away: Now your Peti- 
tioner Prays That This Honourable Court will Take the Above Petition into consider- 
ation & order him the Bounty by Law Granted And your Petitioner as in Duty 
Bound shall Ever Pray 
Tisbury December 1760. (Mass. Archives, LXXIX, 299.) 

This Petition was granted April 8th, 1761. ;£io. o. o. 



;i5 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

manhood, he is described as possessed of a splendid physique 
and became an ideal officer of dauntless courage. It is prob- 
able that he was a soldier in the Louisburg campaign of 1745, 
but we first know of his military service of a certainty in 1755, 
when he was attached to a regiment raised on the mainland 
for the early campaigns in this long struggle. His services 
were mostly in the New York expeditions, Crown Point and 
Ticonderoga, but his fortune was not to die in battle, where 
his military valor would have led him. He fell a victim to the 
scourge of smallpox at Fort Edward, near Lake George, 
Oct. 3, 1757, at which time he was acting major of the regi- 
ment.^ He left a widow and seven children, of whom the son, 
Jeruel, followed in the father's footsteps and fought in the 
Revolutionary war. Captain West married, Dec. 16, 1740, 
Mrs. Elizabeth, widow of Thomas Chase, and daughter of 
Jabez and Katherine (Belcher) Athearn. 

Jeremiah Mayhew, captain of another company, was the 
youngest son of John and Mehitable (Higgins) Mayhew of 
Chilmark, and w^as born in 1705. He married Deborah, 
daughter of John and Hannah (Pease) Smith, by whom he 
had nine children; and a second wife, in his old age. Fear 
Hillman, by whom he had a daughter, named after her mother. 
He died June 14, 1790. 

Barachiah Bassett, another officer, was likewise a Chil- 
mark man, the son of William and Anna (Mayhew) Bassett, 
born in 1732. He married after the war Mercy Bourne, and 
left three daughters. He served as colonel in the Revolutionary 
war, and died June 13, 181 3. 

John Megee was a resident of Chilmark, and followed 
the occupation of weaver. His brother Thomas was a tailor, 
and had resided there from 1725, having married in the town. 
Probably they were Scotch-Irish emigrants. 

MISCELLANEOUS SERVICE IN CANADIAN GARRISONS. 

From this time the principal military service to be per- 
formed by the provinces was in garrison duty at the various 
forts captured from the French, and to form the outposts in 
the territory lately held by them. This was principally in 
Nova Scotia and the other eastern provinces. In 1760, with 
a captain's commission, Barachiah Bassett left the Vineyard 

^Vineyard Gazette, April i, 1853. This is the only definite statement of the 
place of his death, but there is some doubt of its accuracy, in the matter of date. 

316 



' Military History, 1645-1775 

with five men, and Lieutenant John Megee with thirty-three 
more, for Nova Scotia/ The muster rolls of Captain Bassett's 
men show the names of Ebenezer Daggett, Silvanus Hamlin, 
and Abijah Luce of Edgartown; Jeremiah Mayhew and Ed- 
ward Davis of Chilmark, in March of that year, at Lunenburg, 
N. S. The rest of his men were recruited from other towns 
in the province. In May he had besides these Timothy Luce, 
Zaccheus Luce, and Peter Tobey, all Tisbury names. ^ The 
roll of the company under the command of Megee is not 
known to be in existence. One other soldier is known, George 
Look, son of Thomas, who "Died in the Army" this year, 
aged about twenty-one years. ^ The following soldiers also 
participated in the military operations of the army this year : — 

[Mass. Archives, XCVII, 279.] 

Pay Roll of CAPT. JEREMIAH IVIAYHEW'S Company. » 

Annapolis Royal, N. S. 

25 Apr. 1760 



Jonathan Pease 


Private 


Edgartown 


James Horn * 


Private 


Edgartown 


John Holley 


Private 


Edgartown 


Peter Whelden 


Private 


Edgartown 


Sylvanus Pease 


Private 


Tisbury 


Samuel Chase 


Private 


Tisbury 


Shubael Harden 


Private 


Tisbury 


Timothy Luce 


Private 


Tisbury 


Thomas Norris 


Private 


Edgartown 


William Armstrong 


Private 


Chilmark 


William Weeks 


Private 


Tisbury 


William Bridge 


Private 


Edgartown * 



The death, on Jan. 3, 1760, of Colonel Zaccheus Mayhew 
of Chilmark, removed the commanding officer of the Vineyard 
militia forces. He had been for many years an active agent 
in promoting this branch of the citizen's duties to his country, 

* " Elisha West ferryman from Marthas Vineyard to the Main Land Himibly 
sheweth that he in the month of April A. D. 1760 he Transported ;^;^ solgers in the 
province service under the command of Left John Magee over to the main Land 
with out any pay also in May following five more xmder Capt Bariciah Baset and in 
June 1761 I tranceportcd 14 more under said John Magee: the Lawful farage is 
Seven Poimds ten shillings lawful money and I am not paid any more than £2, 8, 6." 
(Mass. Archives, LXXX, 10.) 

'^Mass. Archives, XCVII, 286; XCVIII, 63, 142, 286, 474. 

'Tisbury Church Records. 

^This soldier died. 

'Elisha West put in a bill for ferriage of 38 men in 1760, month of April. 



317 



History of Martha's Vineyard ' 

having been a captain as early as 1718, and probably before 
that date. Accordingly, Governor Bernard reorganized the 
local troops in August, 1761, with the following roster of 
officers : — ^ 

John Newman, Colonel and Captain of the ist Company of Edgar- 
town. 

Cornelius Bassett, Lieutenant Colonel and Captain of the ist Company 
of Foot in Chilmark. 

Benjamin Manter, Major of the Regiment, and Captain of Foot in 
Tisbury (Peter Norton subsequently qualified for this place.) 

Samuel Smith, Junior, Adjutant of the Regiment. 

The company officers were as follows : — 

EDGARTOWN. 

Solomon Norton, Captain Lieutenant; Daniel Coffin, 2nd Lieutenant; 
Daniel Vinson, Ensign, of the first company. 

Peter Norton, Captain; Elijah Butler, Lieutenant; Malatiah Davis, 
Ensign, of the second company. 

CHILMARK. 

Samuel Mayhew, First Lieutenant; Uriah Tilton, Second Lieutenant; 
Mayhew Adams, Ensign, of the first Company. 

Robert Hatch, Captain; Lemuel Weeks, Lieutenant; Zephaniah 
Robinson, Ensign of the second company. ' j,; 

TISBURY. ' 

Benjamin Allen, First Lieutenant; Stephen Luce, Second Lieutenant; 
Josiah Hancock, Ensign. 

INDIAN COMPANIES. 

Edgartown: Enoch Coffin, Jr., Captain; Elijah Smith, Lieutenant; 
Richard Coffin, Ensign. 

Tisbury : Eliakin Norton, Captain ; Thomas Allen, Lieutenant; Ber- 
nard Case, Ensign. 

Chilmark: Adonijah Mayhew, Captain; Lemuel Butler, Lieutenant; 
Thomas Daggett, Ensign. 

It will be noted that the colonel of the regiment was the 
Rev. John Newman, pastor of the church at Edgartown, who 
thus combined the militant with the spiritual calling. There 
was evidence during his pastorate that he was of a " worldly" 
disposition, given to travel and amusement. 

The year 1762 gave us the disastrous Habana expedition, 
resulting in its capture from the Spanish, but at an enormous 
cost of lives from tropical diseases. It is not known that any 

'Mass. Archives, XCIX, 24-5. 



Military History, 1645-1775 

men from the Vineyard took part in this expedition, but many 
from New England manned the attacking fleet and formed 
the land forces. The following named soldiers from the island 
saw service during this year : — - 

[Mass. Archives, XCIX, 130.I 
Pay Roll of CAPT. BARACHIAH BASSETT'S Company 
April, 1761, to Jan. 8, 1762. 



John McGee 


Chilmark 


James Skiff 


Chilmark 


Fortunatus Bassett 


Chilmark 


Nathaniel Clarke 


Chilmark 


Brod'k Dillingham 


Chilmark 


Robert Hamit 


Chilmark 


Anthony Allen 


Chilmark 


Cornelius Hilman 


Chilmark 



[Mass. Archives, XCIX, 128.] 
Pay Roll of CAPT. BARACHIAH BASSETT'S Company.' 
July I to Dec. 8, 1762. 



Timothy Norton 


Edgartown 


Prince Skiff 


Chilmark 


Peter Whelden 


Chilmark 


Peter Weeks, 


Chilmark 


Peter West 


Tisbury 







It is supposed that these men were doing garrison duty at 
Annapolis or Louisburg, as there was no active campaign in 
progress at this time, except the Habana expedition above 
referred to. On Dec. i, 1762, three Indian companies, at- 
tached to the Dukes County militia, had the following named 
officers : — 

Ad onijah Ma yhew, Captain; Lemuel Butler, Lieutenant; and Thomas 
Daggett, Ensign, of the company in Chilmark. David Butler, Captain; 
Noah Look, Lieutenant; and William Foster, Ensign, of the company in 
Tisbury. Noah Look had succeeded Thomas Waldron as Lieutenant.^ 

Among those of Vineyard birth who engaged in these 
wars, while attached to regiments raised elsewhere, was Nathan 
Smith of Tisbury. He served as ensign in the company com- 
manded by Captain Josiah Thacher, of Colonel Doty's regi- 
ment, from March 13 to Nov. 29, 1758. This service was 
probably in the Maritime Provinces, but there is a family 
tradition that he was at the siege of Quebec^ the following 

'On the back of this roll is the account of Captain Bassett for the ferriage of 11 
men from the Vineyard to the mainland, ;^i-i3S and 9 men from the mainland to the 
Vineyard, ;i£i-7s. 

'Mass. Archives, XCIX, 25. 

'Ibid , XCVI, 433. The muster rolls do not furnish any evidence of service in 
1759, the year of the siege. 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

year. It was the beginning of a distinguished military career 
which will be followed during the succeeding war of the Rev- 
olution. 

In addition to those listed in the companies above speci- 
fied, raised here, a considerable number of men from the 
Vineyard served in regiments raised for service in these wars 
under the command of officers from the Cape and other parts 
of the mainland. Altogether there are seventy soldiers credited 
to our island in the campaigns from 1756 to 1762, and some 
of them served throughout the series of expeditions during 
those years. The following is a tabulated record of such 
soldiers of Vineyard birth who performed army service, with 
such particulars as have come to the notice of the author. 



NAME 


Res. 


Company 


Regiment 


Year 


REMARKS 


Harden, Shubael 


Tis. 


Thacher 


Doty 


1758 


Billeting Roll 


i( 11 


Chil. 


u 


u 


1758 


Muster Roll 


it <( 


<( 


It 


<< 


1759 


Billeting Roll 


Luce, Jabez 


Tis. 


11 


1< 


1758 


Muster & B'l't'g Rolls 


" Paul 


a 


li 


ii 


1758 


li a ii 


" Zacheus 


(I 


Fuller 


Thacher 


1755 


CrowTi Pt. Expedition 


(< 11 


a 


Knowles 


Doty 


1758 


Muster Roll 


Norton, Ansel 


Edg. 


Thacher 


ii 


1758 


it ii 


(< <( 


<< 


Snow 




1760 


Service in Nova Scotia 


Brewer, Peter 


M. V. 


Thacher 




1758 


Muster Roll 


Chase, Benjamin 


Tis. 


<< 




1758 


(( (.' 


Covell, Matthew 


Edg. 


ii 




1758 


ii ii 


Norton, Elislea 


11 


ii 




1758 


ii ii 


Lumbert, Gideon 


Tis. 


ti 




1758 


a ii 


Norton, Sylvester 


Chmk. 


a 




1758 


a li 


Neal, Thomas 


Edg. 






1759 


ii ii 




c/y^7^7ay ^Ji^ 



SIGNATURE OF COL. ZACHEUS MAYHEW. 

IN COMMAND OF THE MILITARY FORCES OF THE VINEYARD DURING THE 
FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS, 1755-I760. 



320 



The Vineyard in the Revolution, 1 774-1 778 

CHAPTER XXII. 

The Vineyard in the Revolution, i 774-1 778. 

It is an academic question whether the Revolution of the 
British American colonies was inevitable. It is held by some 
that from the first the emigration of the scores of thousands 
from England, after the embarkation of the "Pilgrim Fathers" 
was not only a separatist movement, ecclesiastically considered, 
but that it contained in it the germs of political dissolution. 
For an hundred years the struggling colonies were under the 
most attenuated control from the home government, and were 
practically self-governing peoples, owning a fealty to the crown 
of England, which was of advantage to 'them in their days of 
weakness. The colonies were generally loyal and proud to 
be a part of the British Empire. Never was this more con- 
spicuously shown than in the campaign of 1745 at Louisburg, 
when the provincial troops under Sir William Pepperrell fought 
side by side with the British tars from Admiral Warren's fleet, 
and captured that great French stronghold. This was under 
the ministerial guidance of that great statesman. Sir Robert 
Walpole, whose policy had been to encourage the participation 
of the colonists in imperial affairs, and to stimulate their loyalty, 
and it designated the high water mark in the cordial relations 
of the home government and the kin "beyond sea." His 
death made a vacancy which was successively filled with little 
men, and for twenty years the colonial policy of the various 
ministries was a series of blunders that almost amounted to 
crimes. "If the second-rate men who governed England at 
this time," says one of the recent historians of the Revolution, 
a distinguished son of this Commonwealth, "had held to the 
maxim of their great predecessor, Sir Robert Walpole, quieta 
non movere, and like him had let the colonists carefully alone; 
or if they had been ruled by the genius of Pitt and had called 
upon the colonies as part of the empire to share in its glories 
and add to its greatness, there would have been no American 
Revolution. But they insisted on meddling, and so the trouble 
began with the abandonment of Walpole's policy. They added 
to this blunder by abusing and sneering at the colonists, instead 
of appealing, like Pitt, to their loyalty and patriotism. Even 
then, after all their mistakes, they might still have saved the 

321 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

situation whicli they had themselves created. A few con- 
cessions, a return to the old policies, and all would have been 
well. They made every concession finally, but each one came 
just too late."^ The "Resolves" of our County Congress, 
called together for the purpose of formulating the grievances 
of the people in 1775, expressly emphasizes this. In reviewing 
the relations which existed between the crown and the colonies 
from the earliest settlement of the island, they speak of "that 
happy union Love and Harmony which formerly Subsisted 
between them by a Relation of those Liberties Priviledges & 
Imunities to these Colonies and to this Province in Particular 
which they enjoyed till about the year 1763," which, it will be 
remembered, was just prior to the hated Stamp Act.^ 

It is probably true that the colonies were the least-governed 
and the freest part of the British dominions, and for that very 
reason WTre the quickest to feel and to resent any change 
which seemed to forebode a deprivation of their traditional 
"rights." But we may wonder if some of their grievances 
were not fanciful or ill conceived. The cry of "No taxation 
without Representation" was good for a campaign motto, 
but one might well ask why should not the colonies be taxed 
for the support of the general government from which they 
derived military and naval protection? True no representa- 
tion in Parliament was accorded to them, but in England 
itself there were dozens of large towns and countless smaller 
communities equally without the privilege of electing members 
to that body. It was a day of inequality in that respect, 
when the "pocket borough" system permitted hamlets to 
return several members and large cities like London and Edin- 
burgh to choose a few, not in numerical or other proportion to 
their size and importance. This is not the place to discuss 
the causes or dissect the motives of the actors in the great 
preliminary events leading up to the struggle for independence. 
During this period the people of the Vineyard sustained a 
reputation for equal loyalty to the crown and shared similar 
resentments against its agents in the varying treatments to 
which the colonists of Massachusetts were subjected. The 
narrative of their participation from the beginning will show 
this trait of loyalty outraged, and driven to acts of revolution. 
Like all insular people they were essentially lovers of freedom 

'Lodge, "Story of the Revolution," 13-14. 
^Tisbury Records, 210. 

322 



The Vineyard in the Revolution, 1 774-1 778 

under constitutional prerogative, and for no trivial reason 
were they brought to sever the ancient ties which bound them 
as subjects to the throne of England. 

The events leading up to the final acts of resistance had 
no immediate effect upon the Vineyard beyond other com- 
munities, and it will not be necessary to say more than that, 
in common with their countrymen elsewhere, they shared the 
sentiments of the people in their opposition to arbitrary gov- 
ernment, and were ready to support them in any measures 
that would be adopted by the representatives of the people. 
Beginning with the Writs of Assistance Act in 1761; the 
Stamp Act in 1765; the Tax Bill of 1767, followed by the 
Boston Massacre in 1770; the Boston Tea Party in 1773 and 
the Boston Port Bill of 1774, causes and effects moved forward 
in ever increasing rapidity, while a stupid ministry failed to 
diagnose the disease correctly, and applied drastic treatment 
when correctives and alteratives should have been admin- 
istered. These conditions precipitated the union of the colo- 
nies and paved the way for a general congress of delegates 
from each province to discuss means for the redress of their 
grievances. Thus the first step was taken, and on Sept. 5, 
1774, earnest and brave men from every colony assembled at 
the City Tavern, Philadelphia, by previous agreement, and 
marched thence to Carpenter's Hall, to exchange views upon 
the situation. For seven weeks they deliberated, these strong 
men, and unanimously decided what they expected from the 
king, and what they intended to do if he should be deaf to 
their appeals. They adopted a declaration of rights, an ad- 
dress to the people of Great Britain, drawn by John Jay, and 
an address to the king, written by John Dickinson. These 
were the academic results of the Congress, but the practical 
measures adopted were of immense importance. They signed 
agreements to neither import nor export any article, rice ex- 
cepted, in trade with England, and appointed a second Congress 
to hear and decide upon the answer which should be received. 
After passing a vote sustaining Massachusetts in her attitude, 
the Continental Congress, on Oct. 26, adjourned. Every com- 
munity, as soon as the reports of the Congress reached it, 
was aflame with patriotic zeal to support the measures recom- 
mended. It is probable that during the sessions of the Con- 
gress that reports of its doings were disseminated by messen- 
gers, and the temper of the convention indicated from time to 
time. 

323 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

THE VINEYARD JOINS THE MOVEMENT, 

Certain it is that the Vineyard people were astir before 
it adjourned, to arrange for a local ratification of the principles 
enunciated, and to adopt the measures recommended. The 
men of Tisbury met in town meeting at the Court House on 
October 19, 

in Order to Chuse a Committee for the Town of Tisbuary to Correspond 
with the Committee of Each Town in Dukes County and the Committees 
of our Province And at Said Meeting Mr. Joseph Allen was chosen Mod- 
erator And then it was put to Vote to See wheather James Athearn Esqr 
Shobal Cottle Esqr Mr Benjamin Allen Mr Abijah Athearn & Mr Benja- 
min Burges Should be the Said Committee & the Vote passed in the 
Affirmative And Then the Above Said Committee was Impowred by a 
Vote to meet the Committees of the Other Towns in Dukes County to 
Sit in A County Congress to form Such resolves and doe Such things as 
they in their wisdom Shall think propper to be done Reletive to our Pub- 
lick affairs.* 

At an adjourned meeting Elisha West was added to this 
committee. Chilmark held a meeting on the 20th, with Zacha- 
riah Mayhew as moderator. "Then was chosen," the records 
say, "Joseph Mayhew Esq., Jonathan Allen Esq., Cornelius 
Bassett Esq., Uriah Tilton & James Allen Jr. Committee 
men to join with any committes that are or may be chosen by 
the other Towns in said County to Consult what measures 
may be expedient to be dane into by this County in the Present 
unhappy State of the Publick afifairs of this Province." ^ Ed- 
gartown was already in line. She had sent Thomas Cooke 
as her representative to the General Court called to meet at 
Salem, on October 5, and also to attend the Provincial Con- 
gress at Concord in the following week. 

THE COUNTY CONGRESS ADOPTS RESOLUTIONS. 

The County Congress was called to meet in the Court 
House at Tisbury on November 9 following, by which time 
the news of the proceedings of the Continental Congress 
had reached the Vineyard. It was a solemn occasion for 
these plain, high-minded lovers of liberty — farmers, sea-faring 
men — to come together for the purpose cf considering their 
relations with their sovereign, whom they had grown to dis- 
trust, and whose acts demanded strong protests and perhaps 

'Tisbury Records, 205. 
^Chilmark Records, 154. 



The Vineyard in the Revolution, I 774-1 778 

active resistance. It meant the parting of the ways, and it 
was with no zeal that they rushed into this position; rather 
did they feel that they were driven into it, and met as freemen 
to demand a restoration of their ancient privileges, gradually 
infringed by successive encroachments, by stubborn ministers 
of state. It is not known who presided over this County Con- 
gress during its deliberations, nor how long it was in session. 
We only know the recorded results, as left to us in a set of 
clear, calm, and firm resolves, and if George the Third could 
have sat down in his palace at Westminster and read them 
quietly and fairly, he would have seen that he was dealing 
with men terribly in earnest, but willing to respond to acts of 
grace at the hand of their sovereign. The Vineyard resolves 
breathed loyalty, with a protest that this sentiment was being 
crushed out of their spirits. They voiced "an Earnest desire 
of the relation of that happy union, Love and harmony which 
formerly Subsisted between them: and from a Sence of Our 
Duty to God, Our Country and our Selves and to future 
Generations of Brittish Americans as well as the present Wee 
have so freely Expressed Our Sentiments." No one could 
read the concluding paragraphs of the resolves without 
admiration for the sentiments uttered. But King George, 
a small-minded, honest man, of German birth, was try- 
ing to be an absolute monarch over a people whom he 
could not understand, and he considered such sentiments 
of resistance as coming from "rebels," and he blundered 
on, irrespective of the merits of the complaints constantly 
presented. 

The resolves are herewith printed in full : — 

At A Convention of the Committees of the Several Towns in the 
County of Dukes County in the Province of the Massachusetts Bay: 
Held by Adjomment at Tisbuary in Said County on the gth of November 
1774 The Said Committee after Serious Consideration of the unhappy 
State of the Province in general & of Said County in Particular; by means 
of Certain Acts of the British Parliment more especialy A Late Act En- 
tituled an Act for the better Regulating the goverment of the province 
of the Massachusetts Bay: Resolved as follows That by the Emigration 
of Our Ancestors from great Brittain into the parts of America of which 
the Province of the Massachusetts Bay consists: When thare ware Un- 
cultivated Regions Inhabited only by wild Beasts and Savages in human 
form: by their Establishing them selves here at their own great expence 
Submitting to and Enduring with most Remarkable fortitude and Patience 
the most grevious Toils and hardships. Amidst the greatest dangers: 
by the great cost and labour of the People of this province Clearing In- 
cosing & Cultivating their Lands here (After a fair purchas hereof of the 

325 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

Indian Propriators) And in Erecting Nessecary & Conveniant Buildings 
thereon: And by this Peoples Defending at A Vast Expence of their 
Blood and Treasure their Possesions and Properties thus Aquired. 

The Territories Included within this Province which would Other- 
wise have belonged to no Prince or Princes but Indian Sachems; (or which 
would have been much worse for Great Brittain would have been Pos- 
sessed by the Subjects of Some Rival European Prince or State) Are now 
with but verry Little if any Expence to the Crown or People of Brittain 
become a verey Valluable Part of the Dominions of the Brittish Monorch 
which from the first Peopeling thereof by his Subjects hath been Con- 
tinually Increasing in vallue to the Vaste and growing Emolument of 
the Crown and People of the Mother country by A Great Increas of the 
Trade & commerce and Naval Powers. 

2ly That therefore (to Say nothing) Concerning the Just Tittle of the 
ancient coUony of the Massachusetts Bay: To the Libertys and Prive- 
ledges they at first enjoyed: by Virtue of A Royal Charter v/hich was 
unjustly Vacated: and which they ware Unreasonally denied a Restora- 
tion off. The People of this Province were Antecedently to the Charter 
Granted then by King William & Queen Mary and Still are by A Right 
dearly aquired by their Predecessors and themselves Justly Intituled to 
at least all the Liberties Priveledges Franchises & Imunities as well as to 
any of the Lands Granted by Said Charter 3ly That the Late Act of Par- 
liment Attempting an Alteration of our constitution and a violation of 
Our Charter (Without our being heard or even Cited to appear in defence 
thereof) is therefore Unconstitutional Unrighteous & Cruel Act or Power. 
Justly Alarming to us as being manifestly designed to wrest from us our 
most valluable & dearly bought rights which we have no ways forfited 
And threatning us with all the Wretchedness of Subjection to Arbitary 
& Despotick Goverment and A State of Abject Slavery: To Say nothing 
aboute the Impolicy of Said Act as being Detremental to the Mother 
countery 

4ly. That therefore we will not Submit to. but to the utmost of our 
power in all Just and propper ways. Oppose the Execution of that Un- 
just and unconstitutional Act and do recomend the Same Resolute Opposi- 
tion thereto to the People of this county 

5ly That no Power or Authority in any ways derived from Said Act 
of Parliment ought to be Submitted to by any belonging to this County 
or to be in any way Owned to be Constitutionall: And that when any 
Man Shall Accept of an Appointment to any Civil Ofl&ce here: in Con- 
formity to Said Unconstitutionall act and Shall pretend to Exercise any 
Power or Authority by Virtue thereof he Ought to be in no ways Sup- 
ported or countenanced therein but Ought to be considred and treated 
as one Acting by A pretended Outhority only And as an Enemy to his 
country 

61y That the before mentioned Charter of this Province and the Laws 
of the Province founded thereon are all of them Constitutionall good 
and Valid; anything contained in Said act of Parliment to the contrary 
notwithstanding 

7ly That all civil officers in this county holding commissions by an 
Appointment agreable to Said charter are when Sworn as the Law Di- 
rects Legally & constitutionaly Authorized to act in their Respective 

326 



The Vineyard in the Revolution, 1 774-1 778 

offices According to their Respective commissions and the Laws of this 
Province and Ought to be Supported in thus Acting, by the People of 
the County 

Sly the Jurors Ought to be chosen and returned in this County in no 
other manner then According to the directions of the Laws of this Prov- 
ince with regard to grand & Pettit Jurors respectively 

gly That Town-meetings ought to be held in this county as hath been 
Usual according to the Directions of the Laws of this Province; And that 
All grants of Monney made: and all Votes passed in such Meetings agree- 
able to Said Laws Ought to be considered as good and binding the Said 
Meeting be Otherwise Called then the Aforesa'd act of Parliment di- 
rects, and all Persons who Shall avail themselves of that act in refusing 
to pay their Proportion of Monney thus granted will by the regard they 
Shew to that Oppressive act aid and abbet the Enemies of their Countery 
in Violating its Just rights Laws and Liberties, 

loly Wee advise the Constables Collectors & Other officers in this 
county who have or Shall have Monney in their Hands belonging to the 
Province that thay pay in the Same according to the direction Lately 
given them by the Provincial Congress or by A Constitutional house of 
Representatives 

Illy With regard to non Importation non Consumption and non 
Exportation of goods wares and Merchandizes we Earnestly recommend 
to the People of this county a Strict Conformity of their Conduct & 
Practice to the Resolutions & Advice of the Late Grand American 
Congress 

i2thly And Finally With respect to the State of Embarrasment this 
Province is in by reason of the Late act of Parlement for altering our 
Constitution, we Earnestly Recomend it to the People of this County 
that they take no advantage of any Difficulties attending the Adminis- 
tration of Justice in the Present Unhappy State of our Publick Affairs: 
And that they Refrain themselves from all Violations and Mobbish Pro- 
ceedings and from all Acts of unlaw^fuU Outrages and Voiolences; and 
from every kind of Injustice and that they be carefull to render to all 
their dues: and behave themselves in a Quiet Pea cable & Orderly man- 
ner Shewing A due regard to Every divine Precept And to the good and 
wholesom Laws of the Land 

And with Respect to the Taxation of the American Colonists by 
Great Brittan Resolved First. That the People of this Province are not 
only by a Just national right; but also by the Express words of their 
Charter Intitaled to have and Injoy all the Liberties and Immunities of 
free and natural Subjects within any of his Majesty's Dominions to all 
Intents Constructions and Purposes whatsoever of which Imunities of 
free and natural Subjects this is most certainly one that no Tax be Im- 
posed on them but with their own consent Given Personally or by their 
Representetives, 2ly That the brittish Parliment by Imposing Duties 
on commodities Imported here- from Brittan for the Single purpose of 
Raising a revenue by Leveying upon us: Have Taxed us without our 
Consent given Either Personally or by our Representatives and have 
thereby assumed to themselves A Power to dispose of our Property at 
their Pleasure And have grosly violated one of our most Esential Nat- 
ural as well as charter rights, 3ly That the Exercise of the Power of Tax- 

327 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

ing us assumed by the Parliment of Great Brittan ought therefore to be 
Resolutely & Strenously Opposed by the People of this Province and by 
every free American Colonistis with respect to the Treatment of the Peo- 
ple of Boston by the Blocking up of their Harbour and Sorounding them 
with an armed force, Resolved That by the Late Act of Parliment for 
blocking up the Harbour of the Capital of this Province and by the verey 
Rigourous and unjustifiable Execution thereof the People of that Town 
are Treated in a verey Oppresive and Cruel manner to the great hurt 
& Detriment not only of this whole Province but of the Other Ameri- 
can Collonies also by Obstructing their Trade & Commerce: and that 
the People of that Distressed Town Ought to be Considerd by all the 
Friends of civil Liberty as Sufferers in a Cause Common to all Such: 
and as therefore Justly Intituled to all the Support & relief they are able 
to afford them: and as to the Late Proceedings with regard to Canada 
Resolved That the Extending the Limits of that Province and the Estab- 
lishment of Arbitary Goverment as well as Popery therein Seems to 
Threaten the Other British Collonies on this Continent with a Like Sub- 
jection to the Despotism of A Frence mode of Goverment and that all 
the People of these Colonies ought therefore readily & Cheerfully to 
concur with the measures Adopted by their Delegates at the Late Grand 
American Congress in Order to bring in the Canadians to Unite with the 
Other British Colonists in Asserting their common Right and Tittle to 
all the Privilidges & Immunities of Free brittish Subjects 

There are also beside those which we have taken Particular Notice 
off Divers other verey Injurious and Oppressive Measures with regard 
to these Collonies: Of Late Adopted and carrying on by the Brittish 
^Ministry concerning which wee hope it will Suffice for us to Declare as 
wee are so happy as to agree in Sentiment with the Grand American 
Congress; with respect to these as well as other matters of Publick Grev- 
iance So we are Determined to conform* our Conduct to the resolutions 
which they have PubHshed 

With A Special aim at Serv'ing our Constituents the People of the 
very Small and Poor (tho' Antient) County of Dukes County in their 
Remote and Obscure Situation; wee who are of the Committees of the 
Several Towns in that county have passed the before goeing Resolves, 
but wee have yet also herein Humbly Aimed at Contributing to the Ser- 
vice of Brittish Americans in General in their Contests for their Just 
Rights and Priviledges to whose Obtaining what they Claim wee Apre- 
hend that their appearing by their PubUck Exploit Declarations to agree 
in their Claims and to be alike Resolved and Persisting in them will be 
greatly conducive, and wee with the utmoste Sincerity declare that it is 
with hearty Loyalty to Our Sovereign Lord the King with an high Sence 
of the Power and dignity of the Brittish Parliment and Ministry and of 
the Reverence wee Owe them account hereof with Sincear affection and 
good will to the People of Great Brittan — with great grief and concern 
on account of the Present unhappy Variance and Strife between that 
Countery and her American Collonies an Earnest desire of the relation 
of that happy union Love and harmony formerly Subsisted between them; 
by A Relation of those Liberties Privilidges Imunities to these Colonies 
and to this Province in Particular which they Enjoyed till about the year 
1763 and from a Sence of Our Duty to God, Our country and our Selves 

328 



The Vineyard in the Revolution, 1 774-1 778 

and to future Generations of British Americans as well as the present: 
Wee have so freely Expressed Our Sentiments with respect to matters 
of so high Importance and of so Delicate a Nature as the Rights of the 
Brittish CoUonists in America and the Conduct of those Towards them 
who are in highest Power in the Mother Countery 

And that Great Brittain and her Colonies may be blessed with an 
happy Union and harmony between them and may respectively enjoy 
all their Just Rights and Priveledges and every Publick blessing to the 
end of time and that King George the third our most Rightfull Sov- 
ereign may Long and hapily boath for himself and his Subjects reign 
over the People of his widely Extended Empire: And that his Succes- 
sors on the Brittish Throne to the Latest Posterity may be Protestants 
of his Illusterous Race And great good and happy Monarchs by & under 
whose wise mild and Righteous Goverment their Subjects Shall enjoy 
great Peace and hapiness is Our most Earnest Prayer to the Supreme 
ruler of the Universe to which we wish every Britton and Every Brittish 
American would Sincearly & Devoutly Say A Men ' 

These resolves were "unanimously" adopted by the towns, 
in meeting assembled, and Tisbury voted to spread them on 
its records, by which act they have been preserved to posterity 
as a memorial of the patriotism of the sires. ^ The die 
was now cast, and the result was in the hands of a higher 
power. 

At their town meeting held to hear and act on these re- 
solves, the voters of Edgartown took the following additional 
action to carry out the recommendations of the Continental 
Congress : — 

Voted there be a committee of seven men in order to observe a strict 
conformity to the non-importation non-exportation & non-consumption 
association recommended by the late Grand American Congress. 

Voted Mr. Nathan Smith, Benjamin Smith, William Jernegan, John 
Worth Esq., Mr. Elijah Butler, Mr. Thomas Cooke, Mr. Ebenezer Smith 
serve as the Committee for the purpose aforesaid.' 



COMMITTEES OF SAFETY FORMED. 

Thus the year ended, and the fateful one of 1775 opened. 
Tisbury began the new year by voting to send her taxes to the 
treasurer designated by the Provincial Congress, and elected 
Deacon Ransford Smith as her representative to that body 

'Tisbury Records, 206-211. 
> ^The acceptances were given on December 6, by Edgartown and Tisbury, but the 

Chilmark records have no further references to the subject, after the choice of the 
committee toattend the Congress. (Edgartown Records, 304; Tisbury Records, 206.) 

'EdgartovkTi Records, I, 304. 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

which was called to meet at Concord in March/ On March 7, 
Tisbury chose Hezekiah Luce, Timothy Lumbert, Isaiah Gray, 
Peter West, and Samuel Daggett "for a committee of Inspec- 
tion to See that the Continental & Provincial Congress be 
adheard to." Similar action was taken by Chilmark on 
May 25, when it was voted "that there be A Comity of Cores- 
pondence Consistin of three Persons," and Uriah Tilton, 
Deacon James Allen, and Nathaniel Bassett were chosen for 
these duties, thus completing the quotas of the three towns in 
these local committees for the carrying on of the affairs of 
government in absence of the constituted authorities. These 
bodies of men in each community, variously called Committees 
of Safety, Correspondence, Observation, Intelligence, and 
Secrecy, were composed of the leading men in sympathy with 
the patriotic movement, and exercised powers locally similar 
to the same committees for the province at large. The func- 
tions of these committees were practically specified by their 
titles, but the committee of safety was the name generally 
used. An historical writer, after a special study of this feature 
of the Revolutionary movement, thus explains their creation 
and duties: The Provincial Congress answered the purpose 
of a deliberative and legislative body, but its size and conse- 
quent lack of harmony prevented it from successfully perform- 
ing executive duties. The Congresses, moreover, did not sit 
continually, and there was need of some arrangement by which 
the government could be carried on at these times without 
interruption. It was to meet these needs that Committees of 
Safety — small bands of men chosen by the Provincial Con- 
gress from its own members — were created. Massachusetts 
organized her committee as early as Oct. 26, 1774, the first of 
its kind, and its duties were specifically defined, subject to the 
direction of the Provincial Congress. He continues thus: — 



^c>" 



In forming these committees the colonists felt they were doing nothing 
unusual or experimental. Under the royal government they had been 
accustomed to the administrative activity of the small body of men known 
as the Governor's Council, which advised and assisted the Governor, and 
acted as his substitute when for any reason his seat became vacant. But 
the dependence of the Committees of Safety on the legislature was an 
element foreign to the idea of the Governor's Council, and had its origin 
in the experience of the people with the committee system of the early 
part of the Revolution. Since the first days of the struggle had brought 
into existence the local and provincial Committees of Correspondence, 

^It is not known whether the other towns sent a delegate to this Congress. It 
adjourned on April 15, a few days before the battle of Concord and Lexington. 



The Vineyard in the Revolution, I 774-1 778 

the colonies had become accustomed to intrust to small committees of 
various designations the task of communicating with each other, of watch- 
ing the movements of the royalists, of enforcing the non-exportation 
and non-importation acts and of carrying out particular resolves of the 
Continental and Provincial Congresses. Such were the Committees of 
Secrecy, of Intelligence, of Observation. They were temporary bodies, 
dependent upon the assembly that chose them, whether this were the 
town meeting or the General Court. They were appointed for certain 
specified duties, and their acts, to be vaUd, required the sanction of the 
body that commissioned them, while they might at any time be disbanded 
when their services were no longer needed.' 

A Committee of Safety for Dukes County was appointed 
by the Provincial Congress on April 12, with Joseph Mayhew 
of Chilmark as chairman. 

It was now April, and the first blow was struck on the 
19th at Lexington Common and Concord Bridge. The "em- 
battled farmers" from the surrounding towns had precipitated 
the conflict and the war had begun. News of it spread like 
wild-fire, and every patriot girded himself for the trying times 
to follow. It was now give and take between the opposing 
sides. The trained troops of the king, supported by the many 
armed vessels of his navy, which were patrolling the coast, 
running into harbors and overhauling merchantmen for con- 
traband of war, were now actively engaged against an un- 
organized enemy. The provincials were formidable on land, 
but on the sea the men-of-war flying the royal ensign were 
practically unopposed. It was their duty to harass the com- 
merce of the colonists, and they did it with impunity, unless 
some daring leader, with an improvised sloop, and volunteer 
crew, gave them a taste of Yankee seamanship. 

The Vineyard Sound was a favorite rendezvous for these 
naval operations on the part of the king's forces. Then, as 
now, it was a great highway for the coasting trade between 
New England and the South, and under the favoring lea of 
Homes or Tarpaulin Coves his majesty's armed vessels of 
war would wait like hawks to pounce upon their prey. In 
the early part of 1775 the armed sloop Falcon, Capt. John 
Linzee, commander, hovered around these sheltering inlets 
and did a profitable business in this line. A copy of her log, 
obtained from the Lords of the Admiralty, shows for the period 
between the loth and 30th of May of that year, how she fired 

'Hunt, Bulletin of Western Reserve University, 1904, p. 22. The earliest sugges- 
tion for Committees of Correspondence between the colonies is found in a letter from 
the great pulpit orator, Jonathan Mayhew, to James Otis in 1766. 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

at and brought to anchor thirteen (13) vessels, and held such 
of them as prizes as were of value/ This is assumed to be 
only a sample of what was being enacted all the time by the 
vessels of the royal navy, and is mentioned to show how closely 
the island was to these constant evidences of war. 



THE VINEYARD PREPARES FOR THE STRUGGLE. 

The Third Provincial Congress was immediately called 
after the Lexington and Concord affair, and was set for the 
31st of May at Watertown, and Edgartown sent Beriah Norton 
and Tisbury elected James Athearn as members of this body. 
Chilmark was not represented. At this session it was resolved 
that "thirteen thousand coats be provided for each officer and 
soldier in the Massachusetts forces, agreeably to the resolve 
of Congress on the 23rd day of April last; to be proportioned 
according to payment of the last Provincial tax." Under this 
schedule Martha's Vineyard received 112 coats as follows: 
Edgartown, 36; Tisbury, 32; Chilmark, 44; and we may 
reasonably infer that the men of the seacoast-defence estab- 
lishment were uniformed with these coats. While this Pro- 
vincial Congress was in session, the Battle of Bunker Hill was 
fought on the 17th of June, and the last hope of reconciliation 
was dashed. Young Joseph Thaxter, destined later to be our 
distinguished pastor at Edgartown, was in Prescott's regiment 
at that fight, and Joseph Huxford of Edgartown and Malachi 
Baxter, later of Tisbury, fought there also; but it is not 
known whether any one else from the Vineyard participated. 
The arrival of the news of this famous battle reached here 
immediately, and active measures were instituted to get 
troops in training. A contemporary writer tells us what was 
done : — 

About 20th June 1775, a General notis was made to all the inhaba- 
tance of the Vineyard to turn out and assemble to Tisbury on the 25 June, 
which is nearly the Center of our Island to see what measures they would 
advise in our Expos'd situation, their was a veery large majority in 
favour of appling to General Court at Boston for soldiers: at the s'd 
meeting at Tisbury all our arms was particularly inspected & now the 
minds of many were sounded amongst the young men to see who would 

'Public Record Office, Admiralty Logs, No. 7250. On Wednesday, May 31, 
1775, the Falcon was at anchor in Homes Hole, and the log shows the following ac- 
tion: "Sent our boats on Bd two sloops and prest 2 men at 6 fir'd four six pounders 
shotted with Round and Grape to bring too a Boat." This shows that Yankee sea- 
men were being impressed into the king's service. 



The Vineyard in the Revolution, 1 774-1 778 

join the Volinteer corps of Edgartown. we soon found the number of 
active young men say 12. Some had call afterward to leave and go sea 
but their number was soon Replaced. 

During this time Tisbury appeared to be the most active 
in all matters connected with the increasing struggle. It 
seemed to be the center of military preparations, as it was the 
central town of the thi-ee. A town meeting was holden on 
June 29, at which Stephen Luce, Abijah Athearn, and Samuel 
Look were appointed a committee *'to Joyn with the Com- 
mittee or Committees that are chosen or may be chosen in 
the Other Towns in the County, In Order to Consider of & 
Carrey into Execution Such Methods as they Shall think proper 
to be done under our present Situation Respecting our Publick 
Affairs," and passed some "resolves," the terms of which do 
not appear upon the report of the meeting. But all were busy, 
if the records do not tell us about it. The general condition 
of affairs at this date, as reported to the authorities at Cam- 
bridge by our local committee of safety, gives us these par- 
ticulars in a letter : — 

July 5th, 1775. 

Sir: — The Committee of the County of Dukes County appointed by 
the late provincial Congress on the 12th of April last beg leave to report: 
That said Committee according to the first order of the Congress met on 
the first Wednesday of May last but not having then had an opportunity 
to receive a state of the conduct of their several Towns made no Report: 
and as the order of the Congress postponing the first meeting of the Com- 
mittees of the several Counties in this Colony to the fourth Wednesday 
of May was not received by him to whom it was directed till the evening 
immediately preceding said fourth Wednesday the Committee for said 
County did not then meet. But being now on this first Wednesday of 
July 1775, met according to the order of the Congress, we have received 
no State of the conduct either of the Town of Edgartown nor Chilmark, 
the former of which Towns having as we perceive no Committee of Cor- 
respondence: But as to the only other Town in this County, viz: Tisbury 
the Committee of Correspondence of that Town have reported that said 
Town was endeavouring that their outstanding provincial taxes be speedily 
paid, according to the Directions of the Congress — but they were under 
great Difiiculty with respect to raising Money for that purpose: as they 
have great occasion for Money to procure a necessary supply of Bread, 
Corn, and Money was very scarce amongst them thro' the failing of their 
whale-voyages last year, and thro' their having no Market for the Oyl 
they have since obtained. (But since the Date of the above Report we 
have had certain information that the said Town of Tisbury have sent a 
considerable of their Province dues to the Receiver appointed by the 
Congress) And the said Committee of Correspondence for Tisbury do 
also report that their Town are nearly tho not fully (according to law) 

333 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

furnished with arms and ammunition and are endeavouring in this and 
all other respects to conform to the recommendations of the Continental 
and Provincial Congresses. 

And with respect to those two towns first mentioned of whose con- 
duct we have had no information in the way pointed out by the Congress, 
we beg leave to report in brief from information which we have other 
ways had: That with regard to paying their outstanding provincial taxes 
and their furnishing themselves with arms and ammunition they are en- 
deavouring to conform as soon as possible to the recommendations of the 
Congresses and in other respects conduct themselves agreeably thereto. 

In the name and by order of the Committee 

JOSEPH MAYHEW Chair 'm ' 

The next meeting of the General Court for the Province 
of the Massachusetts Bay was held at Watertown on July 19, 
and the Vineyard had a full representation at the session, 
Colonel Beriah Norton for Edgartown, Mr. James Allen, Jr., 
for Chilmark, and Captain Nathan Smith for Tisbury. The 
business of providing for the fast increasing army occupied 
the larger part of its time. Requests to the towns were sent 
out for their share of the various supplies needed, and the 
Vineyard was included in the list — Tisbury was asked for 
coats, and at a meeting held on July 31, the selectmen were 
authorized to "be a committee to Procure the coats for the 
Provincial Soldiers." It is not known what requests were 
made of the other towns. ^ By this time it became a serious 
question of military defence of the island, as the armed vessels 
of the king were continually making depredations, and alarm- 
ing the people. In addition to these regular naval vessels, 
there were a large number of small craft belonging to Tories 
in the large seaports, who, under the protection of the guns 
of the fleet, raided isolated coast towns, cut out craft lying at 
anchor, and doing damage to the property of the patriots. 
These little privateers, belonging to the Tories, were called 
"Picaroons," and some of them did work about the Vineyard. 
A contemporary writer speaks of such experiences. "The 
next August (1775)," he says, "the Pickaroones or small ves- 
sells they had taken from us and armed with swivels; and 
sometimes a War Brig would accompany them." On the 
2ist of August the freeholders of Tisbury held a town meeting 
and voted "to Send a Petition to the General Assembly at 
Watertown To see if they will grant us a Number of Men to 

'Mass. Archives, CXCIV, 24. 
'Tisbury Records, 214. 

334 



The Vineyard in the Revolution, 1 774-1 778 

be Raised for the Defence of Said Town," and a committee 
was appointed to draw up "Some Suitable Instructions for Our 
Present Representative when at Said court to consider and 
represent our Circumstances, That wee cannot Supply Said 
Men with Arms nor Amunition and if they Cannot be Ob- 
taind without them then not have them come, for wee have 
but A Small Supply for Our Selves and Cannot git any more 
at Present."* 

Committees from the other two towns took similar action, 
but the particulars are not on record. While the committees 
were engaged in this service, an incident occurred which shows 
the tactics pursued by the captains of the British vessels 
which put into Homes Hole and Edgartown Harbors with 
demands for water and supplies. In the latter part of August 
his majesty's ship Nautilus^ Captain John Collins com- 
manding, dropped anchor in Homes Hole. He sent ashore a 
demand for some supplies, accompanied by a threat in case of 
refusal to comply. It was the usual custom, although some 
commanders never forgot their courteous breeding. In this 
case the men of Tisbury, two of them were then selectmen, 
returned the following response on September i : — 

Sir: we are sorry the unhappy disputes between Great Britain and 
these Colonys should be carried to such a height as to put it out of our 
power to supply you with any kind of Provision whatever, as to your filling 
water for the Necessary Supplys of your ship you may with freedom send 
your boat on shore and fill without molestation provided your people 
come in the day time and unarm 'd and offer no abuse to the Inhabi- 
tants, as to your threatening you will fire on our homes it will not force 
the least complyance to that which in itself is not agreeable to the 
advice of that power which we look upon as being drove by nicessity 
to obey. 

We ar Sir your most h'ble Serv'ts the Selectsmen, 

JOSEPH ALLEN, 
STEPHEN LUCE, 
EBEN'ER SMITH. 

To this the commander of the Nautilus sent the sub- 
joined reply the same day : — 

Nautilus, Sept. i, 1775. 

Gent'm: I am equally sorry for the situation of the times, but when 
matters are carried so far as to deny a little Milk or a Cabbage to a Single 
ship, a thing of so small moment it rather tends to Kindle that unhappy 
difference which as men and Christians we should exert ourselves to allay, 
every contrary exertion on my part wou'd be a matter of Necessity, as I 

'Tisbury Records, 214. 

335 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

shou'd be sorry to Injure any mans property, and nothing of that kind 
will be thought of but hope we shall part not worse friends than at this 
Present and am Gentlemen your most h'ble Serv't, 

JNO. COLLINS. 
To the Selectmen of Dukes County, Messrs Joseph Allen, Stephen 
Luce, Eben'er Smith. 

ORGANIZATION OF THE SEACOAST-DEFENCE TROOPS. 

The towns of Tisbury, Chilmark, and Edgartown pre- 
sented petitions to the General Court, Sept. 28, 1775, praying 
for protection against the common enemy, and asking authority 
to enhst men in the cause of liberty. The petition from 
Edgartown recites : — 

The people in said town are generally poor and yet very fond of 
preserving their liberties, and to protect their stock of sheep and cattle 
have been often under arms and marched from their respective places 
of abode eight and ten miles when alarmed, to prevent the enemy 
landing. 

They asked power to enlist sixty men. The petition from 
Chilmark says: — 

Your said petitioners think it ought to be our duty and are willing 
and resolved not only from a regard to our private interest, but also to the 
general interest of this continent to do all that is or shall be in our power 
to hinder the common enemy of the land from being strengthened in carry- 
ing on their hostile designs against us, by making a prey of our property and 
that of our neighbors, but we are sorry that we are obliged as we think we 
are to say that a considerable number of the inhabitants of this town are 
(through the influence of certain powerful men here who are against 
openly opposing those who are endeavouring to enslave us) averse to such 
exertions in our defense as we think will be highly proper and necessary 
by which means a vote of the majority of the inhabitants of this town 
qualified by law to vote in town affairs could not be obtained at a meet- 
ing here lately held to petition your honours for such help as we perceive 
you have granted to other places. 

The petition from Tisbury recites their desire for joining 
in the defence of their liberties and asks for "such a number 
of men either by sea or land or both as you in your wisdom 
shall think meet for our defence." 

The House of Representatives passed the following re- 
solves in response to these petitions : — 

That there be raised in the Island of Marthas Vineyard two compa- 
nies of fifty men each, including their officers, and companies to be sta- 
tioned upon the sea-coast of that island according to the direction of the 

33^ 



The Vineyard in the Revolution, I 774-1 778 

field officers of the Regiment of Militia of said Island or the major part 
of them; the said two companies to be under the same establishment; 
the forces raised in this colony for the defence of the sea coast are to pay 
subsistance and ammunition and every soldier in the said two companies 
shall furnish himself with a good and sufficient fire-lock and bayonet 
and no man shall be mustered as a soldier who is not so furnished; said 
two companies to continue in service till the first day of December next 
Unless before that time Dismissed by the order of this Court; and the 
Field Officers of the Regiment of Militia of said Island be and they are 
hereby impowered to issue beating orders for the raising of said com- 
panies to such persons as they can recommend to be commissioned, and 
muster those companies when raised. 

The following company was raised under this authority, 
being enlisted from the 7th to the 14th of October, and the 
service was one month and twenty-five days. 

[Mass. Revolutionary Rolls, XXXVII, folio 22.] 

A PAY ROLL FOR CAPT. BENJAMIN SMITH'S COMPANY STATIONED ON THE 
ISLAND OF MARTHA'S VINEYARD FROM THE TIME OF THEIR IN- 
LISTMENT TO THE FIRST DAY OF DECEMBER, 1 7 75. 

Private 



Benjamin Smith 


Captain 


Richard Luce 


Samuel Norton 


Lieutenant 


John Smith 


James Shaw 


a 


Peter Norton, Jr. 


William Norton 


Sergeant 


John Holley, Jr. 


Francis Meeder 


a 


Joseph Holley 


Seth Cleveland 


ii 


Joseph Hammett 


Levi Young 


n 


James Skiflf 


Noah Norton 


Corporal 


Hugh Stuart 


Timothy Vincent 


a 


Uriah Norton 


Cornelius Dunham 


u 


Henry Daggett 


John Haselton 


u 


Jonathan Hammett 


Joseph Shed 


Drummer 


Henry Young 


Samuel Frothingham 


Fifer 


Jonathan Smith 


Benjamin Tucker 


Private 


Henry Coffin 


Zachariah Norton 


" 


Sprowell Marchant 


David Smith 


(( 


Thomas Coffin 


Robert Norton 


a 


William Smith 


Joseph Swasey, Jr. 


u 


Uriah Dunham 


Matthew Daggett 


a 


Joseph Tarnance 


William Waley 


n 


William Norton, Jr. 


Edward Burgess 


a 


John Rosson 


Timothy Smith, Jr. 


a 


Silas Daggett 


Benjamin Gillson 


a 


Joseph Smith 


Peleg Hillman 


a 


Joseph Norton 


Thomas Butler, Jr. 


(( 


David Davis 



This company, the first raised on the island during the 
war, consisted of three commissioned and eight non-com- 
missioned officers, two musicians, and thirty-one privates. 

337 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

THE CONSERVATIVE ELEMENT BETRAYS TIMIDITY. 

The geographical position of Martha's Vineyard and the 
feebleness of the military strength of the colonies at the pre- 
cipitation of the struggle with the crown conspired to give the 
situation of its inhabitants a peculiar standing during the 
Revolution. 

The population of the Vineyard was only 2881 in 1776, 
and besides the scantiness in numbers it was sparse in char- 
acter, rendering concerted action by them in defence of the 
island a task out of proportion to their strength. The colonies 
could not afford men and supplies enough to make the island 
independent of the king's troops and frigates, and from a 
strategical consideration was not worth the great outlay which 
such a movement entailed. Indeed, had it been of value in a 
military sense, it is safe to say that the British forces would 
have seized and garrisoned it. It would have been of more 
value to the American cause, however, could they have erected 
forts and batteries along the Vineyard Sound for the purpose 
of protecting the few armed vessels which constituted our 
fleet at that time, giving them a safe harbor from which to 
sally forth on missions of reprisal, as well as to harass frigates 
of war belonging to the crown. The situation was so full of 
complications that many of the faint-hearted on the island 
continually spread the alarm of "death and destruction," if 
the British should attack the defenceless place. This natur- 
ally made for discontent with the provincial authorities, who 
had greater problems in the field. Both Edgartown and Tis- 
bury began to show signs of dismay at the prospect, and 
sought for aid. At a meeting held on Oct. 30, 1775, the free- 
holders of Edgartown voted : — 



*&*■ 



that Rev. Samuel Kingsbury, John Worth & Enoch Coffin Esqrs 
serve the town as a committee or agents to attend the General Court now 
setting at Watertown or to such committees that are or may be empowered 
to act in the Recess of the Court, and acquaint them with the unhappy 
situation and circumstances of this much Exposed Town and the Great 
Danger which the Inhabitants conceive themselves to be in of Being 
Distroyed by the men of war and Armed Vessels, or Drove from their 
habitations and thereby Exposed to Want & famine and Beg the Direc- 
tion of the Honorable Court respecting the matter.^ 

Tisbury held a similar meeting seven weeks later, Decem- 
ber 18, and decided that they would "Prefer a Petition to the 

^Edgartown Records, I, 303. 



The Vineyard in the Revolution, 1 774-1 778 

general court to Send us A Committee of that Court to come 
here & take a View of our Circumstances and Report what 
Mode of conduct wee Shall pursue in order for our Safety 
under Our Situation and that the Select Men Prefer the Sd 
Petition in behalf of the Town." * 

There were Tory influences at work as well, men who 
were satisfied with the existing state of governmental affairs, 
the wealthy and the well-born class, of which every community 
had representatives during the war. In a small community 
they were more trouble than a dozen open enemies to the 
patriotic cause. The old and conservative element always 
shrinks from overt acts, however necessary, and counsels peace, 
often at any price. Some of them refused to take ofhce under 
the new order of things. This condition was not peculiar to 
the Vineyard, and these sentiments were generally felt the 
most at this time, when the timid shrank from the results of 
the first real taste of warfare, and speculated on what might 
happen in the future. This situation is clearly shown early in 
1776, in the following letter of the chairman of the committee 
of safety for Dukes : — 

Honorable Sir: 

Judging it to be of Importance to the County of Dukes County whereto 
I belong that the honourable Council of this Colony be informed of the 
State of Civil Affairs &c here, I think it to be my Duty to give your Honour 
the following Intelligence with respect thereto, to be by your Honour 
communicated to the rest if you shall think fit. 

Now four out of the nine commissionated to be Justices in this County, 
viz: — William Mayhew Esqe appointed Sheriff & Mr Robert Allen 
appointed Coroner remain unsworn: appearing unwilling to be so: 
and neither of them except Jonathan Allen Esq. being present when the 
other civil officers here were sworn which was done on the 2 2d of Novbr 
last: of the five Justices who have been sworn, two viz: Ebenezer Smith 
and Beriah Norton Esquires live at Edgartown & two viz: — James 
Athearn and Shubael Cottle Esquires at Tisbury, and I only at Chilmark, 
and the only sworn Coroner Mr Ebenezer Norton lives at Edgartown. 

As I have informed your Honour of these who have been commis- 
sionated to be civil officers here decline to be sworn: I hope it will not be 
tho't impertinent if I account for this in the following manner. The 
real state of things here, Sir, as I apprehend is this. There are some 
here who are really not well affected to the present Government, nor to 
the measures now pursued in Defence of our civil liberties, and these ill 
affected Persons endeavour to embarrass the establishing of Civil Gov- 
ernment in this County: and through their suggestions (in part at least) 
many persons here, perhaps near one half of the People of this County 

'Tisbury Records, 215. 

339 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

imagine that it is best for us considering our situation to be still & in no 
way to shew ourselves to be on the Side of the Assertors of our civil 
liberties lest we hereby provoke the Invaders of ovu* Coasts to ruin us. 
And it is (as I think I have sufficient Reason to Believe) thro' such an 
apprehension as this that so many of those who have been lately appointed 
civil officers here are unwilling to be sworn. 

I mean, Sir, that many here were till the honourable General As- 
sembly of the Colony discovered their late Resolution with Respect to the 
Defence of this County. But how far people here are hereby em- 
boldened to appear in Defence of their Rights and liberties I cannot yet 
tell. And as for ought I know some or all of those of whom I have above 
mentioned are unwilling to be sworn may have their Fears so far removed 
as to manifest a Desire to have the oath administered to them and I am 
at a loss what we who are empowered to administer the oath ought to 
do in that case I am very desirous of the Direction of the honourable 
Council herein. 

As to a Sheriff for this County about the want of which officer I 
am peculiarly concerned, I hope it will not appear assuming in me if I 
mention Major Peter Norton as a suitable or perhaps all things considered 
the most suitable Person here to be Sheriff of this County and also to be 
Colonel of the Regiment of the Militia here: the latter of which offices 
he, as I perceive, prefers. And if he is not made Sheriff, I humbly pro- 
pose that he be made a Justice of the Peace, at least, if not a Justice of 
the Pleas also for this County. A great part of this letter may perhaps 
appear a vain repetition of what I wTote above a month ago to the honble 
Col. Otis as Prest of the honourable Council. But having reason to fear. 
Sir, that my letter hath miscarried, I have tho't it proper for me to write 
as above. This, Honourable Sir, with great Respect and Deference to 
the Honourable Council, and to your Honour in particular from 

Honourable Sir 
Chilmark, Jany i8th, 1776 Your Honours most obedient 

and humble Servant 
Honble Prest of the Council. » JOSEPH MAYHEW. 

But there were other difficulties which beset the patriots 
on the Vineyard, besides the weak-kneed within the gates. 
Outside interference gave the grumblers opportunity to add 
to the burdens of the leaders of the *' Rebel" party, and for a 
while it caused much unjust comment. We shall have occa- 
sion to observe the actions of these tories in the course of the 
struggle. 

RE-ENLISTMENT OF THE VINEYARD COMPANIES. 

On January i, the term of service of the seacoast-defence 
company having expired, a new enlistment was called for, and 
the following men mustered in under the command of Cap- 
tain Benjamin Smith: — 

^Mass. Archives, CXCIV, 208. 



The Vineyard in the Revolution, 1 774-1 778 



[Mass. Archives (Revolutionary Rolls), XXXVI, 238, 239.] 

pay roll of captain benjamin smith's company stationed at 
Martha's vineyard from the time of their going upon 
duty or their marching from their homes to their 

respective STATIONS, TO THE LAST DAY OF 
FEBRUARY, 1 7 76 

Private 



Benjamin Smith 


Captain 


Corneleus Ripley 


Malatiah Davis 


Lieutenant 


Jonathan Cottle 


James Shaw 


a 


Benjamin Vinson 


William Norton 


Sergeant 


William Walley 


Joseph Smith 


a 


Noah Norton 


Harlock Smith 


li 


Thomas Johnson 


Seth Cleveland 


Corporal 


David Davis 


Gamaliel Marchant 


a 


Abraham Chase 


Jonathan Pease, Jr. 


a 


Jonathan Smith 


Corneleus Marchant 


Drummer 


Obed Norton 


Henry Coi3in 


Fifer 


Thomas Cunningham 


Henry Butler 


Private 


Edward Persell 


Jethro Covel 


" 


Hugh Stuart 


Francis Meader 


<i 


Thomas Neal 


•Joseph Covel 


(( 


Uriah Dunham 


Corneleus Dunham 


u 


Samuel Nickison 


Ichabod Cleveland 


u 


Peleg Crossman 


Joseph Butler 


(( 


Joseph Lobdell 


Zephaniah Butler 


u 


Ebenezer Shaw 


Enoch Coffin, Jr. 


a 


Barzillai Luce 


WilUam Covel 


(( 


John Rogers 


Edward Burgess 


(( 


Joseph Covel, Jr. 


Valentine Skiff 


a 


Joseph HoUey 


Benjamin Burgess 


a 


Jonathan Hammett 


Seth Crossman 


(( 


Joseph Francis 


Peter Camp 


u 


Obadiah Skiff 


John HoUey, Jr. 


i( 


Thomas Coffin, Jr. 


Cornelius Norton 


(1 


Admaral Potter 


John Smith, Jr. 


a 


Silas Daggett 


David Smith 


u 


Robert Norton 


Timothy Smith 


(( 


Edward Draper 


Benjamin Burgess 


(< 


Thomas Norris, Jr. 


Theophilus Mayhew 


a 


Henry Dunham 


Richard Bunker 


li 


Barzillai Luce, Jr. 


Pelatiah Russell Jr. 


a 


William Smith 


John Marchant Jr. 


(( 


Henry Young 


Samuel Norris 


(C 


Anthony Crossman 


Thomas Nickison 


a 


William Norton, Jr. 



This company was mostly composed of Edgartown men, 
but there were in it a number of "transients," probably sea- 
faring men. This company was stationed on the east end of 
the island. 



341 



History of Martha's Vineyard 



Almost simultaneously Captain Nathan Smith was given 
a commission to raise a second company for service here, and 
from the names of the soldiers it appears to have been re- 
cruited in Tisbury and Chilmark almost exclusively. It was 
probably posted on West Chop and along the north shore. 
The following is the roster of officers and men : — 

[Mass. Archives (Revolutionary Rolls), XXXVT, 262.] 

A ROLL OF CAPTAIN NATHAN SMITH'S COMPANY STATIONED ON THX ISLAND 

or MARTHA'S VINEYARD OR THE DEFENCE OF THE SEA COAST 

OF THE SAME, MADE UP FROM THE FIFTEENTH DAY OF 

JANUARY TO THE LAST OF FEBRUARY, 1 776. 



Nathan Smith 
Jeremiah Manter 
Fortunatus Bassett 
David Merry 
Jesse Luce 
Samuel Bassett 
David Luce 
Joseph Mayhew 
Jeruel West ' 
George Newcomb 
Lothrop Chase 
James Look 
Elijah Look 
Arvin Luce 
John Luce 
Varnel Clifford 
Eliphalet Rogers 
Jonathan Look 
Benjamin Luce 
Malachi Luce 
William Harden 
Thomas Chase 
David Norton 
Abner West 
David Clark 
Andrew Newcomb 
Solomon Daggett 
James Winslow 
Nathan Daggett 
Silas Daggett 
Roland Luce 
Thomas Manchester 
Sylvanus Luce 
Zaccheus Chase 
Thomas Wheldon 
Jabez Downs 
Moses Luce 
George Hillman 



Captain 
Lieutenant 
2nd Lieut. 

Sergeant 



Corporal 



Drummer 

Fifer 

Private 



Shubael Luce 
Elver ton Crowell 
Augstus Allen 
Jeremiah Luce 
John Dunham 
Lemuel Luce 
John Lumbert 
David Dunham 
James Luce 
Samuel Lumbert, Jr. 
Nathan Clifford 
Thomas Luce 
Hovey Luce 
Zachariah Smith 
Adonijah Luce 
Lot Rogers 
Aaron Luce 
Presbury Luce 
Barzillai Crowell 
Nathan Weeks 
Jonathan Merry 
Peleg Hillman 
Benjamin Bassett 
Nathan Bassett 
Joseph Skiff 
Freeman Norton^ 
David Hillman 
John Mayhew 
Jonathan Hillman 
Daniel Hillman 
Abner Hillman 
Silas Cottle 
Peter Cottle 
Thomas Cox 
Lot Hillman 
Shubael Luce, Jr. 
John Bassett 



Private 



342 



The Vineyard in the Revolution, I 774-1 778 

This company continued in service without the change 
of an officer or private until June i following.' These two 
companies under Captains Benjamin and Nathan Smith were 
placed under the command of Major Barachiah Bassett, who, 
in an election for that office, received 59 votes. The com- 
panies voted for their officers at that period. 

Martha's vineyard and nantucket accused of 
disloyalty. 

On Dec. 9, 1775, both houses of the General Court had 
appointed a committee to consider some serious charges made 
by Governor Jonathan Trumbull of Connecticut against the 
inhabitants of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard. The sub- 
stance of the allegations was that supplies in excess of the re- 
quirements of the two islands had been shipped to them, 
''and there is a great reason to suspect that the inhabitants 
of the said island of Nantucket have abused the indulgence of 
this Court by supplying our enemies with such provisions &c 
as were admitted to be Transported to them for their Internal 
consumption only." In their zeal to reach the offending ele- 
ment, included in the general charge of disloyal trading with 
the king's forces, the committee passed a resolve that the com- 
mittee for correspondence of Falmouth should suspend the 
granting of permits in the future to any vessels loading for 
the two islands, ''until further order of this Court," and fur- 
ther directed the selectmen of Sherburne (Nantucket), and 
each town on the Vineyard "to make strict enquiry into the 
Importation of Provisions into their respective Towns since 
the 28th of September last, and of all provisions now in said 
Towns and to make returns thereof on oath, as soon as may 
be." Inhabitants of this and other colonies were requested to 
withhold further supplies, fuel, and other necessaries from the 
two islands, "until farther recommendation of this Court." 
This was totally without excuse as far as this island was con- 
cerned, but the court acted upon the information of an earnest, 
if mistaken, patriot, the famous war governor of Connecticut, 
and did an injustice to the people of the Vineyard. It has 
been seen that armed vessels of war would come into the harbor 
and demand trivial things for the captain, — fresh vegetables, 
water, ' eggs, and the like, — sometimes under threat, some- 
times with the cash tendered in a courteous manner. These 

*Mass. Archives, XXXVI, 297. 

343 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

isolated instances doubtless gave rise to false reports of barter 
and trade with the enemy in great quantities. But the select- 
men of the three towns made investigation and report, and 
stated the facts about the whole matter in such a convincing 
way that the General Court in the next month passed a resolve 
rescinding the order, as jar as this island was concerned. The 
following is the text of the revocation, which is printed in full 
as a complete vindication of the good faith of the people of 

our island : — 

In Council, January 25, 1776. 

Whereas upon enquiry it doth not appear that many of the Inhabi- 
tants of Marthas Vineyard ever had a disposition to supply the enemy 
with provisions, and it doth not appear by the Resolve of the ninth of 
December last that they were suspected of corruptly doing the same, and 
since measures have been taken which in all probability will prevent the 
Enemy from being supplied from that Island, and the Inhabitants thereof 
must suffer while under the aformentioned restraint, therefore 

Resolved that the order of this Court of the Ninth of December last 
so far as it respects Marthas Vineyard only be and is hereby annulled.' 

This little flurry having been satisfactorily settled the 
leaders gave their attention to more important things, and on 
March 8, 1776, the Tisbury people met and chose Shubael 
Cottle, Ransford Smith, and Ezra Athearn to be a committee 
to join with a similar body from other towns, if any such 
should be chosen, to consider whether they should petition 
the General Court, "to see if they will grant us a farther sup- 
ply of men, arms and amminition for the Defence of the Is- 
land against any Invasion."" Chilmark followed suit on the 
nth inst., choosing Joseph Mayhew, Uriah Tilton and Na- 
thaniel Bassett;' while Edgartown completed the arrange- 
ment on the 19th, by naming Ebenezer Smith, Peter Norton, 
and Elijah Butler to meet with the others.^ Meanwhile the 
volunteer and regular soldiery of the island was busy defending 
the seacoast, and making sallies from their camps against 
passing vessels of the enemy. One such occurred on the 7th 
of March, under the auspices of Captain Benjamin Smith of 
the company which had been in service since the middle of 
the previous October, 

'Force, American Archives, 4th series. On March g following, Col. Beriah Nor- 
ton complained that this Resolve had not been published, "and as we have suffered 
By it alredy," he wrote to the Coimcil, "I most humbly Beg your honor to have it 
published as soon as Possable. Several persons having Been obliged to unlode their 
vessels alredy that was Bound here on that acc't." (Mass. Arch. CXCIV, 275.) 

-Tisbury Records, 215. 

'Chilmark Records, 159. 

*Edgartown Records, I, 308. 

344 



The Vineyard in the Revolution, 1 774-1 778 

PETITION FOR MORE TROOPS. 

The committees chosen by the three towns to consult 
about further defence of the island met two days after Edgar- 
town had completed the number from that town, and after 
discussion drew up the following petition to the General Court 
looking to this end : — 

To the Honourable the Council and House of Representatives of the 
Colony of Massachusetts Bay in great and general Court assembled: — 

The Petition of the Inhabitants of the Several Tovms in the County 
of Dukes County in said Colony, by their Committees whose names are 
hereto subscribed, humbly sheweth: That the Island of Marthas Vine- 
yard and the other islands whereof the County aforesaid consisteth, do 
lie greatly exposed to the enemy with whom the United Colonies of North 
America are now engaged in open hostilities, and the said Islands are 
situated so nigh to the neighbouring continent especially to the Counties 
of Bristol, Plymouth and Barnstable, and do also lie by the way wherein 
both American vessels and those of the enemy have frequent occasion to 
pass: That it is (as your Petitioners humbly conceive) of great Impor- 
tance, not only to the inhabitants of these Islands & to all persons who 
are owners of Land and other property therein: but also to the Inhabi- 
tants of the neighbouring continent, and even to the American colonies, 
now unitedly engaged in vigorous exertions for the Defence of their Per- 
sons, Liberties and Properties: that (if it be possible) said Islanders be 
kept from falling in to the hands of the common enemy of said colonies, 
For (as your Petitioners apprehend) if the enemy should be so possessed 
of those Islands and the Harbours there, as to have the Persons and Prop- 
erties of all the Inhabitants thereof at their Command and Disposal and 
have it in their power to make use thereof as they shall please: They 
will by the Men of War, and other armed vessels which they will keep 
in the harbours there & from thence cruising out into the neighbouring 
seas and along the coasts of tJiis and some of the neighbouring Colonies, 
so obstruct the navigation of these Colonies as greatly to weaken and 
distress them. And will also be able to greatly annoy & distress 
them. And will also be able to greatly annoy and distress the 
Inhabitants of the neighbouring continent by burning their houses and 
pillaging their stock and other valuable Properly. And will have it in 
their Power to land an Army on the Southern Shore of this Colony, which 
may penetrate (no man knows how far) into the Countrey making great 
Distress in their March before they can be subdued. 

And your Petitioners conceive the Defence of these Islands is of so 
great Importance as they have declared: They apprehend that they cannot 
(without such a miraculous Interposition of Divine Providence as is not 
to be expected) be so far defended by the Inhabitants thereof, against 
such a force as is likely soon to attack them, as to be kept out of the hands 
of the enemy. 

But with the assistance of such a number of men well furnished with 
Cannon, small arms, Powder and other necessaries, as we hope may be 
obtained from your honours, together with the Protection which these 

345 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

Islands will receive from the armed vessels, which, we presume, will be 
employed for the protection of navigation of these Colonies, we trust that 
the Islands for whose defence we petition will (thro' the Favour of Heaven) 
be preserved from the enemy: and also that by means of the Defence 
and Preservation thereof, the Sea Coasts of this and neighbouring Colo- 
nies and their navigation will in no small degree be protected: and that 
our enemies by the obstructing of their navigation will be nearly as much 
weakened as they would be strengthened by being possessed of these Is- 
lands, and by having the command of the adjacent sound and seas. 

The Prayer of your Petitioners therefore is: That your Honours 
would be pleased to order six hundred men from the continent well fur- 
nished with Arms, Powders and other necessaries, or such number of men 
as your Honours shall in your wisdom judge most fit and proper to be 
stationed in the County of Dukes County for the Defence thereof, 525 of 
said men to be stationed on the Island of Marthas Vineyard & the other 
seventy five thereof at the Islands called Elizabeth Islands. And that 
your Honours would be pleased to order to be sent to Marthas Vineyard 
for the Defence of the several Harbours there seven cannon and to Tar- 
paulin Cove, the only harbour of Elizabeth Islands, two cannon. And 
that your Honours would (In this time of Danger as far as it shall be in 
your Power) afford such Protection and means of Defence to the County 
aforesaid as to your Honours shall appear to be necessary: and likely 
(by Favour of Divine Providence) to be effectual for its preservation & 
safety: and requisite for the Defence of the United American Colonies 
now struggling for their just Rights & Liberties, and your Petitioners as 
in Duty bound shall ever pray &c 

In the name and by order or the Inhabitants of Dukes County: — 
Tisbury March 21st, 1776 

Joseph IVIayhew ~^ Committee 
Uriah Tilton > for 

Nathaniel Bassett ) Chilmark 

Eben'r Smith ") Committee 

Peter Norton |- for 

I/Elijah Butler ) Edgartown 

Shubael Cottle ') Committee 
Ransford Smith > for 
Ezra Athearn ) Tisbury ^ 

Major Bassett, in command of the forces stationed at the 
Vineyard and the Elizabeth Islands, was ordered, under date 
of May 6, to fortify the two places with four nine-pound can- 
non, recently taken from a vessel stranded at or near Truro, 
and to mount them ''in such manner for the defence of these 
islands, as the s'd Major shall judge proper." ^ He had them 
removed, and all were placed in position on the Elizabeth 

'Mass. Archives, CCIX, 334. 
^Ibid., CCIX, 209. 



The Vineyard in the Revolution, I 774-1 778 

Islands/ While the military forces were thus busied, the civil 
element was doing its part in providing laws and authority 
for the maintenance of the new government. At the General 
Court held in Boston during May and June this year, the 
Vineyard was fully represented. From Edgartown went 
Thomas Cooke, Tisbury sent Shubael Cottle, and Chilmark 
was fortunate in having that sturdy old patriot Joseph May- 
hew, the chairman of the county committee of correspondence 
and safety. Important acts were done by this Court for the 
Vineyard, which will be detailed in their chronological order. 

SEACOAST-DEFENCE ESTABLISHMENT IN 1 776. 

Major Bassett, shortly after his appointment as com- 
manding officer of the two companies of the seacoast-defence 
establishment, proceeded to perfect the organization and bring 
these raw levies into military discipline. The first step taken 
was the issue of the following orders from headquarters : — 

Marthas Vineyard, June 9, 1776 

FIELD ORDERS. 

I St All prophane cursing and swearing and Card playing in or near the 
camp forbidden. I shall take notice of the first crime of that Nature 
which comes to my knowledge. 

2nd. Forty men including Capt. Benja. Smith stationed at Edgartown near 
the Harbour. Twenty men at Homes's Hole East side including one 
Lieut. Thirty men West side including one Lieut. Twenty men 
Lumberts Cove including one Lieut. Forty men at Manamsha in- 
cluding one Lieut. These are stations until further orders. 

3rd Those stations that have more Men Remove them forthwith to the 
station at Manamsha. 

4th, Each party to keep suitable Guard. Turn out Boat and other Parties 
when Required by their officers. Hail all Boats as their officers shall 
Direct. In Alarm the parties to repair to the Alarm, Leaving the 
Guard. Capt'n Nathan Smith having no particular Station to see 
that preparations be made on the West side of Homes's Hole for 
Cannon and to visit the other Stations. Lieut. Bassett to Intrench 
at Manamsha as soon as he can procure Tools. 

BAR'H BASSETT Com.^ 

Two days later Major Bassett was inspecting his command 
at Naushon. He wrote from there a letter to the Council and 

*Mass. Archives, CCIX, 315. The cannon were, however, useless. "I am in Bound 
in Duty to let you know," he wrote to the General Court, on June 11, "there is no use 
for them without Ball, Ladles, &:c., which renders them imfit for use." On June 22 
the Council ordered the cannon to be turned over to the armed brig belonging to the 
Colony at Dartmouth, and replaced them with two nine pounders. (Ibid., CCIX, 3.) 

*Mass. Archives, XLIX, 112. 

347 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

House of Representatives on June ii, in which he stated the 
need of "Intrenching Tools which must be used for the pro- 
tection of said posts" placed over the Islands. He also in- 
formed them "that it will not be in my power to afford pro- 
tection which is necessary to these Islands westward of Tar- 
polan Cove Island & the vessels that ar constantly passing 
without I have at least Ten Whale Boats." ^ 

On June i the company commanded by Captain Benja- 
min Smith showed the following soldiers on duty under him, 
and stationed at East Chop : — 

[Mass. Archives (Revolutionary Rolls) XXXVI, 239.] 

PAY ROLL OF CAPTAIN BENJAMIN SMITH'S COMPANY ON THE SEA COAST 
ESTABLISHMENT STATIONED ON THE ISLAND OF MARTHA'S VINE- 
YARD, FROM THE FIRST DAY OF JUNE TO THE FIRST DAY 
OF SEPTEMBER, 1 7 76. 

Benjamin Smith Captain Obed Norton Private 

Malatiah Davis 

James Shaw 

William Norton 

Joseph Smith 

Harlock Smith 

Seth Cleveland 

Henry Butler 

Jonathan Pease, Jr. 

John Atsatt 

Henry Coffin 

Jethro Covel 

Francis Meader 

Joseph Covel 

Ichabod Cleveland 

Zephaniah Butler 

Enoch Coffin, Jr. 

Cornelius Ripley 

Jonathan Cottle 

Benjamin Vinson 

William Waley 

Noah Norton 

Joseph HoUey 

Joseph Francis 

Obediah Skiff 

Thomas Coffin, Jr. 

Silas Daggett 

William Norton, Jr. 

Henry Dunham 

^Mass. Archives, CCIX, 315. On June 22, the Council allowed him ten whale 
boats, twelve shovels, six spades, and four pickaxes. (Ibid., CCIX, 3.) 



Captain 


Obed Norton 


Lieutenant 


Thomas Cunningham 


a 


Hugh Stuart 


Sergeant 


Thomas Neal 


(( 


Samuel Nickison 


a 


Peleg Crossman 


Corporal 


John Rogers. 


u 


Edward Burgess 


u 


Seth Crossman 


Drummer 


Anthony Crossman 


Fifer 


John HoUey, Jr. 


Private 


Cornelius Norton 


a 


John Smith, Jr. 


ti 


David Smith 


(I 


Timothy Smith 


(< 


Richard Bunker 


<( 


Pelatiah Russell, Jr. 


(( 


John Marchant, Jr. 


(I 


Thomas Nickison 


a 


Joseph Covel, Jr. 


(( 


Elijah Norton 


(( 


Ebenezer Bassett 


<( 


Richard Hillman 


<< 


John Flanders 


(( 


Prince Skiff 


<( 


James Hillman 


(C 


Freeman Luce 


a 


Abisha Rogers 


li 


Noah Walden 



348 



The Vineyard in the Revolution, I 774-1 778 

William Smith Private Levi Young Private 

Henry Osborn " Thomas Claghorn, Jr. " 

Sprowell Marchent " William Swain " 

Cheney Look " Seth Cottle 

William Roberts, Jr. " Thomas Atsatt 

Zimri Luce " Enoch Coffin, 3d " 

Joseph Fredrick " Uriah Norton " 

David Davis " John Sprague " 

Jonathan Smith " 

On the same date the company commanded by Captain 
Nathan Smith renewed its enHstment, but the rolls for this 
period are not preserved. It is known, however, that it con- 
tinued in service. 

On June 25, the General Court ordered "that one piece 
of Cannon a sLx pounder now at Elizabeth Islands be removed 
from thence and placed at Martha's Vineyard and that they 
be supplied with two nine pounders now at Boston. And that 
the Commissary General be and he is hereby directed to de- 
liver the same to Joseph Mayhew Esq., or order, and also for 
the use of the cannon and Men stationed at the Vineyard five 
Barrels of Powder forty round of shot for each of said Can- 
non and three hundred weight of leaden balls. He the said 
Mayhew to be accountable to this Court for the same." 

ADDITIONAL TROOPS SENT TO THE ISLAND. 

The General Court acceded also, on June 25, to the rep- 
resentations of the County Committee so far as to allow an 
additional company for the defence of the Vineyard, making 
in all three companies which were placed under the command 
of Barachiah Bassett of Chilmark, who was commissioned as 
major of this division of the seacoast-defence establishment.^ 
The militia regiment for the county was also reorganized in 
April of this year with the following officers : — 

Beriah Norton, Colonel; Uriah Tilton, Major. 

First Company: Richard Whellen, Captain; Joseph Pease, ist 
Lieutenant. 

Second Company: Joseph Allen, Captain; William Case, ist Lieu- 
tenant; Jonathan Athearn, 2nd Lieutenant. 

Third Company: Samuel Norton, Captain; Mark Mayhew, ist 
Lieutenant; John Cottle, Jr., 2nd Lieutenant. 

Fourth Company: Samuel Norton, Captain; Abner Norton, ist 
Lieutenant; Henry Butler, Jr., 2nd Lieutenant. 

Fifth Company: Matthew Merry, Captain; Timothy Chase, ist 
Lieutenant; Cornelius Norton, Jr., 2nd Lieutenant. 

'Mass. Archives, CCIX, 209. 

349 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

A change was made in the officers of the first company 
on June 7, as follows: — 

Matthew Mayhew, Captain; Joseph Norton, ist Lieutenant; Ezra 
Cleveland, 2nd Lieutenant.^ 

The additional company granted by the General Court was 
raised by Captain John Russell, from the Cape, who was com- 
missioned for the purpose, and the roster of his company 
shows that it was almost entirely recruited off the island, ac- 
cording to directions, all the officers being men from the cape, 
and the names of the privates having the family names of 
Cape Cod people. A few were residents of our island. The 
following is the list of officers and men : — 

[Mass. Archives (Revolutionary Rolls), XXXVI, 198.] 

ROLL OF CAPT. JOHN RUSSELL'S COMPANY RAISED TO DEFEND THE SEA 

COAST OF THE STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY STATIONED AT 

MARTINS VINEYARD UNDER THE COMMAND OF MAJOR 

BARICKIAH BASSETT.^ 

Private 



John Russell 


Captain 


Joseph Fuller 


Stephen Fish 


Lieutenant 


Benjamin HaJlett 


Silas Hatch 


Sec. Lieut. 


Thomas WTiite 


Benjamin Goodspeed 


ist Sergt. 


Thomas Whelding 


Abner Howes 


Sergeant 


Thomas Whelding, Jr, 


Timothy Jones 


u 


Benjamin Gorham 


Benjamin Blackford 


(( 


Jonathan Hawes 


John Matthews 


Corporal 


Lemuel Baxter 


David Gorham 


a 


John Rumble 


Malachi Baxter 


<( 


Joseph Hall, Jr. 


Samuel Webber 


(( 


Peter Burgess 


Joshua Brimhall 


Drummer 


Benjamin Nicholson 


Jonathan Russell 


Fifer 


Covel Burgess 


Joseph Hammond 


Private 


Barzillai Baker 


Isaac Parker 


(( 


Seth Matson 


Joseph Nicholson 


ii 


Burton Matson 


Zachariah Fuller 


u 


Jesse Maker 


David Blossom 


u 


Benjamin Hallett, Jr. 


Church Blossom 


u 


John Gorham 


Simon Goodspeed 


(( 


Enoch Nicholson 


Edward Crocker 


(( 


Lemuel Fish 


George Hilliard 


ii 


Isaac Covens 


Benjamin Hillman 


ii 


Simon Berry 



*Mass. Archives, (Revolutionary Rolls), XLIII, 207. Compare Ibid., CXLVI, 
378, where Uriah Tilton is spoken of as Second Major. 

^Ibid., XXXVI, 198, 201. This company was raised agreeably to a resolve of 
June 25, 1776, to serve until December 1 next. Each man was required to furnish 
himself "with a good fire arm & Bayonet fitted thereto if possible, & also a cartouch 
Box & Blanket." (Mass. Arch., CCIX, 381.) 



The Vineyard in the Revolution, I 774-1 778 



Philip Harlow 
William Cahoon 
Reuben Phillips 
Henry Binyon 
Lemuel Green 
Peter Norton 
Isaac Luce 
William Merry 
Peter Merry 
Seth Luce 
George Luce 
John Blackford 
Nathan Crowell 
Uriah Hall 
Edward Churchill 
Samuel Taylor 
John Robbins 
William Gerrish 
Joseph Thatcher 
Samuel Bassett 
John Burgess 
Abner Butler 
Benjamin Butler 
William Butler 
Simeon Hatch 
Lot Bacon 



Private Jacob Baker 

" Comeleus Baxter 

" Jonathan Kelly 

" Eben Baxter 

" William Draper 

" Abner Cottle 

" Abraham Godfrey 

" John Crocker 

" Timothy Crocker 

" William Crocker 

" Samuel Daggett 

" Thomas Pacefull 

" Eben Eldridge 

" Caleb Williams 

" James Titus 

" Andrew Nicam 

" Stephen Nicholson 

" Benjamin Crowell 

" Mathias Gorham 

" William Farris 

" James Nicholson 

" Elisha Godfrey 

" Prince Webber 

" Prince Gage 

" William Bassett 



Private 



This made on July i a total effective force of about two 
hundred and fifty men in the seacoast-defence establishment, 
besides which the local mOitia added probably as many more, 
who could be called upon to respond to alarms. This was a 
sufficient number for ordinary purposes, such as repelling a land- 
ing force from vessels of war, in any strength they would 
probably employ. The situation was satisfactory in every 
way, and the establishment of a garrison here could not but 
be a constant menace to the king's ships, as the men comprising 
it were amphibious, at home on the water as well as the land. 
By this time the American army had left Boston and taken up 
a position on Long Island, General Howe's troops were in 
Halifax and the Continental Congress was in session at Phila- 
delphia discussing independence. On the "Glorious Fourth" 
of this month the Declaration was promulgated and, as far as 
pronouncements could establish the fact, the American people 
had definitely severed their political allegiance to their ancient 
sovereigns. Doubtless in due time, this immortal expression 
of the principles of the rights of mankind was read to the sea- 
coast-defence troops in their camps along our shores, as it 



351 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

had been elsewhere as soon as it could be circulated. The 
people also had a chance to listen to its thrilling denunciations 
of the tyranny of kings, and of George the Third in particular, 
for this document was distributed for the information of the 
American nation to their inspiration in the contest now being 
waged, and it was generally read at some public demonstra- 
tion by the town clergyman or the popular leader of the pa- 
triots. The battle of Long Island, which took place in August, 
resulted disastrously to the American army, and consternation 
prevailed as usual among the timid. It was seen that every 
available man would be needed to sustain the cause of freedom. 
The theatre of war was removed from New England, and this 
region was freed of the king's troops. 

In September, Joseph Mayhew and Shubael Cottle, rep- 
resenting Chilmark and Tisbury, petitioned the general court 
for ten whaleboats for the use of the island garrisons, and six 
were allowed.^ The commissary general was also ordered to 
provide apparatus for three cannon, which were to be sent to 
the Vineyard.^ It is not known that any occasion arose for 
their use, or that any exploits on the sea took place during this 
time. The enemy had practically abandoned New England, 
and opportunities were wanting. The local companies at- 
tached to the sea-coast establishment were composed of the 
following men on September i, as shown on pay rolls: — 

[Mass. Archives (Revolutionary Rolls), XXXVI, 239, 246.] 

PAY ROLL FOR CAPTAIN BENJAMIN SMITH'S COMPANY STATIONED AT 
MARTHA'S VINEYARD FROM THE FIRST DAY OF SEPTEMBER 
TILL THE TWENTY FIRST DAY OF NOVEMBER 1 776. 

Private 



Benjamin Smith 
Malatiah Davis 


Captain 
Lieutenant 


John Flanders 
Freeman Luce 


James Shaw 


a 


Abisha Rogers 


William Norton 


Sergeant 


William Swan 


Joseph Smith 


a 


Seth Cottle 


Harlock Smith 


u 


Thomas Atsatt 


Seth Cleveland 


Corporal 


Uriah Norton 


Thomas Claghorn 
Prince Skiff 




Jethro Dunham 
Ephraim Dunham 


John Atsatt 


Drummer 


Noah Pease 


Jethro Covel 
Corneleus Ripley 
Jonathan Cottle 


Private 

a 


Elijah Dunham 
Ehjah Dunham [Jr.] 
John Clark 



*Mass. Archives, CLXXXI, 194. Petition was dated Watertown, Sept. 5, 1776, 
and the allowance on the loth following, 
^bid., CLXXXI, 195. 



352 



The Vineyard in the Revolution, I 774-1 778 



Noah Norton 
Hugh Stuart 
Peleg Grossman 
Timothy Smith, Jr. 
Silas Daggett 
William Norton, Jr. 
William Roberts, Jr. 
Zimri Luce 
Joseph Fredrick 
Richard Hillman 
Thomas Beetle 
Anthony Grossman 
Joseph Govel 
Ezra Gleveland 
Jonathan Pease 
William Smith 
Ruben Pease 
Gorneleus Norton 
Joseph Frances 
Thomas Gunningham 
David Smith 
Zephaniah Butler 
Joseph Govel, Jr. 
EHphalet Govel 
John Sprague 



Private John Butler, Jr. 

" Silas Marchant 

" John Kelley 

" Zachariah Pease 

'' Joseph Ripley 

" Prince Daggett 

" John Daggett 

" Ansel Norton 

" Ehjah Norton 

" David Dunham 

" Elijah Stuart 

" Benjamin Vinson 

Noah Look 

" Enoch Gofl5n, Jr. 

" Thomas Ripley 

• " Sylvanus Grosby 

" Matthew Daggett 

" John HoUey, Jr. 

" Thomas Nickison 

" William Roberts 

Silas Butler 

" Luke Gray 

" Timothy Vinson 

John Smith 



Private 



[Mass. Archives (Revolutionary Rolls), XXXVI, 256.] 

A ROLL OF CAPTAIN NATHAN SMITH'S SEACOAST COMPANY STATIONED ON 

MARTHA'S VINEYARD THE YEAR 1 776, MADE UP FROM THE FIRST 

DAY OF SEPTEMBER TO THE 21 DAY OF NOVEMBER 

BEING TWO MONTHS AND 20 DAYS OR TWO THIRDS 

OF A MONTH. 

Private 



Nathan Smith 


Gaptain 


Vamel Clififord 


Jeremiah Manter 


ist Lieut. 


Aaron Luce 


Fortunatus Bassett 


2nd Lieut. 


Nathan Clifford 


David Merry 


Sergeant 


David Hillman 


Joseph Mayhew 


(( 


Nathaniel Nickerson 


James Winslow 


(( 


Thomas Hillman 


Peter West 


Corporal 


William Butler 


Silas Gottle 


a 


Pain Tilton 


Barzillai Growell 


a 


Jacob Clifford 


Nathan Bassett 


Drummer 


Simon Mayhew 


Lothrop Ghase 


Fifer 


Thomas Wilkins 


Benjamin Bassett 


Private 


Lemuel Luce 


Arvin Luce 


a 


Elijah Look 


John Mayhew 


(< 


Lot Rogers 


Thomas Cox 


(( 


EHphalet Rogers 


Peter Gottle 


(( 


Elverton Growell 


Gershom Hillman 


(( 


Moses Luce 



353 



History of Martha's Vineyard 



Abner Hillman 
Lot Hillman 
Shubael Luce 
Jonathan Look 
Abisha Dunham 
William Luce 
Lot Luce 
Benjamin Luce 
Joseph Luce 
Samuel Hammett 
Henry Luce 
Samuel Weeks 
James Butler 
Ebenezer Morse 
Thomas Gardner 
Nathan Weeks 
Zephaniah Chase 
[Thomas] Manchester 
[Jonathan] Merry 
Augustus Allen 
Thomas Lassey 



Private Samuel Lumbert 

" Jeremiah Luce 

" Thomas Luce 

" Thomas Chase 

" George Hillman 

" Malachi Luce 

" Nathan Luce 

" William Harding 

" Sylvanus Luce 

" Timothy Hillman 

" Joseph Norton 

" Thomas Smith 

" Anthony Swazey 

" Solomon Luce 
William Allen 

" Shubael Harding 

" William Daggett 

" Job Norton 

" John Manchester 

" Jonathan Manter 



Private 



Still there was constant vigilance on the part of Major 
Bassett, for there was never a time when an armed cruiser 
might not enter one of the harbors and attacli the inhabitants. 
On September lo he issued these "Field Orders": 

Field Orders: 

As there appears some danger of an attack every soldier is required 
to repair to his Barrack at Eight of the Clock ever}' Evening on Tattoo 
Beating. per 

BARTAH BASSETT 
Com. 
Marthas Vineyard 
Sept. lo, 1776 ' 

What the occasion of the alarm was is not known, but we 
may infer that it was a threatened expedition from New York 
to rid the Sound of its dangers to the passage of the vessels of 
the enemy's fleet. But if it had been threatened it was not 
carried out, as the British General Howe was busy trying to 
drive Washington out of New York. 

^ Beriah Norton MSS. in Pease Collection. 



354 



The Vineyard Abandoned to Neutrality 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

The Vineyard Abandoned to Neutrality. 

In the autumn of 1776 our army numbered only 10,000 
effectives, owing to sickness among the raw levies, furloughs, 
and the casualties of war. At this time the British troops 
were being reinforced each month with the "Hessian hire- 
lings" and their strength was thrice that of ours. Every 
available man was needed at the front now, as Washington 
was aware that Howe proposed to end the rebellion at one 
blow, in an attempt to surround him at New York. Gradu- 
ally the forces of the king pushed Washington back to the 
hieghts of Harlem, and to White Plains, and the struggle for 
the command of the Hudson was becoming desperate. So far 
it had been a losing one for the Americans. The call for men 
was urgent, and the Massachusetts General Court sought to 
supply the requirements at the expense of her own frontiers. 
The greater end was paramount, and she sacrificed the sea- 
coast -defence establishment as her contribution to the general 
result. Accordingly, on November 16, after the battle of 
White Plains, and on the day of the fall of Fort Washington, 
the council passed the following order affecting the Vineyard : — 

Council Chamber, November 16, 1776. 
To Barachiah Bassett 

You are hereby in a Pursuance of a Resolve of the General Court of 
this State ordered forthwith to discharge the officers and men stationed 
at Marthas Vineyard excepting twenty five men, including one Lieutenant 
one Sergeant & one Corporal from the Service of this State and you are 
hereby also ordered forthwith to discharge from the above service the 
officers and men stationed at the Elizabeth Islands, excepting twenty one 
men, including Lieut. Nye and two sergeants and you are directed to 
designate the Persons to be retained still in the service agreeable to the 
above order; after which you are to look upon yourselves as discharged 
from the Military service you have been engaged in at the said Marthas 
Vineyard and Elizabeth Islands.' 

Similar notices were sent out to the commanding officers 
of the seacoast-defence men at Plymouth, Truro, Dartmouth, 
Falmouth, and elsewhere, so that the Vineyard was not alone 
in the reduction of her local forces. These companies posted 

'Mass. Archives, CLXXIII, 42. 

355 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

here were not subject to orders for duty elsewhere, as they 
were recruited "to serve on the Island of Marthas Vineyard," 
and as a consequence discharge was the only course open to 
the authorities. It was expected that the men would join new 
companies raised for the general army without restriction to 
sphere of duty. Indeed, many Vineyard men preferred service 
elsewhere, particularly on board of privateers, and the crew 
lists of many of them will show names familiar to us at this 
period and throughout the war. Many of the discharged 
soldiers enlisted in other regiments, as soon as they were formed, 
and the lists of our Vineyard men who served in the war will 
show, as given elsewhere in this work, that they did not allow 
this home-guard duty to end their patriotic sentiments. By 
the early part of the next year they were enrolled in companies 
mustered in on the Cape, or elsewhere in Plymouth County, 
and those towns are credited with quotas filled in an appre- 
ciable measure by residents of this island. There being no 
companies raised here for general service, our towns do not 
share the advantages of enlistment records such as obtained 
in other towns of the province. 

ONE COMPANY RETAINED AT THE VINEYARD. 

Major Bassett immediately obeyed the order for disband- 
ment, and by the 20th had selected the officers and men for 
the company of ''twenty five men, including one Lieutenant, 
one Sergeant & one Corporal," He designated Jeremiah 
Manter, David Merry, and Malachi Baxter for those com- 
missions respectively, and the rest of the company is shown 
in the following muster roll : — 

[Mass. Archives (Revolutionary Rolls), XXXVI, 177.] 

ROLL OF LT. JEREML\H MANTER'S CO. WHICH WAS A PART OF THE COM- 
PANY STATIONED ON MARTHA'S VINEYARD IN THE YEAR 1 776 
MADE UP FROM THE TWENTIETH DAY OF NOVEMBER TO 
THE LAST DAY OF DECEMBER, BEING ONE MONTH 
AND TEN DAYS. 

Private 



Jeremiah Manter 


Lieut. 


Jonathan Manter 


David Merry 


Sergeant 


Jonathan Merry 


Malachi Baxter 


Corporal 


Thomas Smith 


Josiah Luce 


Private 


Nathan Luce 


Lothrop Chase 


<< 


William Daggett 


Elijah Look 


(( 


Thomas Gamer 


Lot Rogers 


« 


Seth Cottle 



356 



The Vineyard Abandoned to Neutrality 



Elvarton Crowell 
Lot Luce 
Henry Luce 
Nathan Weeks 
Simeon Hatch 



Private 



Prince Daggett 
Silas Daggett 
Ebenezer Butler 
Elvarton Parker 
Stephen Pease 
Jonathan Pease 



Private 



This was the army of defence left to guard our island as 
a result of this legislation, and the king's troops had begun to 
occupy Newport as a base of operations. 

Thus matters assumed a somewhat peaceful aspect here, 
and once more the Vineyard reverted to its own re- 
sources. Those left were full of gloomy forebodings. "At 
the moment the country saw only unbroken defeat, and the 
spirit and hopes of the Americans sank. The darkest hour 
of the Revolution had come," says an author already quoted. 
It is not a wonder that the men here became infected with the 
general misgivings of the nation at large. Tisbury, as usual 
the leader in all these movements heretofore, to keep the ball 
rolling, called a meeting in the middle of December, summon- 
ing the "freeholders" of the town and voted: — 

in Order to take under their most Serious consideration the Sad and 
Allarming circumstances this county as well as the rest of the country 
is at present under, and then & thare to consider what mode of conduct 
this Town with the rest of the county Shall be thought best to come into 
for our Preservation if wee are Attack't by the Kings Troops, And to chuse 
A committee if the Town thinks propper to take the Affair under consid- 
eration, Or to Joyn with the other Towns in the county if they See Cause 
to Act with us, At said Meeting Deacon Stephen Luce was chosen Mod- 
erator, And then it was put to Vote to See whether Esq. James Athearn 
Deacon Ransford Smith Mr Elisha West Should be a Committee to Joyn 
with the Other Towns Committees in Our County, Or by themselves 
and with the Commision Officers of the Militia in Sd County, To con- 
sider and agree upon what mode of Conduct the People of this Town 
with the rest of the County Shall come into in Order for our Preservation 
if wee Should be Attack't by the Kings Troops.' 

This situation had to be met, as our people could not 
throw up their hands and admit defeat without a struggle. 
As no other town joined, this committee had no joint 
business to perform, but later a committee of the town acted 
individually, and on the 27th of December prepared a petition 
to the General Court setting forth the situation as it appeared 
to them. 

'Tisbury Records, 217 



357 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

To the Honourable the Council & the (House) of Representa- 
tives for the State of Massachusetts Bay In General Court As- 
sembled : — 
The Petition of Shubael Cottle, Elisha West & Nathan Smith, Com- 
mittee for the town of Tisbury Humbly sheweth: that the Island of Mar- 
thas Vineyard is sittuated in the middest of Danger. We are much alarmed 
at the Dismission of the soldiers which ware alowed as a Defence for our 
Island as the Kings Army is so near us — and as we find by an act of the 
General Court we are called upon to tack one quarter of our men and 
send them or hold them in Redenes to march at the shortest warning to 
ajoine the Continental Army, and to leave our own Places to the will of 
our Enemies — wherefore your Petitioners humbly pray that your hon- 
ours would (amidest the Many and grate businesses that come before 
you) Tack one thought on our awful Surcumstances — and grant that 
we may be Released as to Rasing our Men to go of the Island on any 
ocation unless to Defend our Nabours alicke exposed and in that case we 
shall shew our utmost Redenes to Defend them — and furthermore your 
Petitioners Humbly Pray that when your Honours shall have us under 
your wise consideration that you would be so good as to grant us help in 
sending us men from the mane, or by Imploying our Men as Soldiers', to 
Defend our Island as thare is not much to be expected from our Militia 
being but thin at the best, and now very much in the Sea Servis. Your 
petitioners would not be unmindfull of the Regard Shune us in times past 
in granting us 250 men which by the Blessing of God ware Sufisent for us 
last Sumer — as we think it our duty to be in the use of menes we most 
ernestly pay that your Honours would grant sum further help or other 
ways provide for us as you in your wisdom shall think proper as in Duty 
bound shall ever pray. 

Tisbury the 27 of December 1776 SHUBAEL COTTLE 

ELISHA WEST 
NATHAN SMITH 
Committee for the towTi of Tisbury ^ 

The action taken by the General Court upon this repre- 
sentation is shown in the following transcript of the records of 
the House, under date of Jan. 20, 1777: — 

The above petition so far granted as that the Militia of the Island 
of Marthas Vineyard are excused from furnishing their proportion of the 
late draught of one quarter of their militia. 

The removal of stock &c to the main-land is recommended. 

THE VINEYARD LEFT TO ITS OWN DEVICES. 

This last sentence was ominous. It foreboded an aban- 
donment of the island to the enemy, if that policy should be 
adopted. Across the sound the Elizabeth Islands had as 
many soldiers to protect a few families as were assigned to 

'Mass. Archives, CLXXXI, 405. 



The Vineyard Abandoned to Neutrality 

the Vineyard proper. Chilmark woke up now and tried fur- 
ther disconcerted action, where before all had worked together. 
Thirty-five of the inhabitants signed the following statement 
of facts and opinions: — 

Chilmark, January 27, 1777. 

To the Honourable, the Council and House of Representatives of 
the State of Massachusetts Bay in General Court Assembled: 

The Petition of a number of Inhabitants af the Town of Chilmark 
in the Island of Marthas Vineyard and in the County of Dukes County 
Humbly Sheweth: That the said Island of Marthas Vineyard (especially 
the Western Part thereof where your petitioners reside & where there is a 
Road for shipping) is by its situation at least as miich exposed to the Enemy 
now possessing Rhode Island as the Islands called Elizabeth Islands in 
the same Town. For the Protection of which last mentioned Islands 
much greater (tho' we do not think too great) Provision is made than for 
the protection of Marthas Vineyard: when the last named Island is of 
much greater value in itself of vastly greater importance to the Public 
than the others. There being on Elizabeth Islands but seventeen famihes 
and about one hundred souls; when there are on Marthas Vineyard at 
least five hundred families and about 2780 souls, exclusive of Indians 
living by themselves, and this last named Island is also much better ac- 
comodated than Elizabeth Islands with Harbors and Roads for shipping 
by means of which Harbours of Marthas Vineyard, and a few soldiers 
there stationed, with the Pilots and other Inhabitants of said Island a 
very large part of the many rich Prizes taken from the enemy during 
the present war have (after they have waited some time in said Harbours 
for a fair wind & for an opportunity to proceed to the Port to which they 
were bound, without Danger of being intercepted by the Enemy) safely 
arrived either at Dartmouth or Providence or at some other Place where 
they might be discharged of their Cargo. All which advantages accruing 
to this and other American states from the Harbors of Marthas Vineyard 
while that Island remains in the Possession of Friends to the Common 
Cause of these States will not only be lost to this and the other states of 
the nieghboring continent, if said Island or its Harbours should be pos- 
sessed by the Enemy, but the advantage the Enemy will hereby gain will 
perhaps be no less pernicious than the possession of that Island & its 
Harbors hath hitherto been advantageous thereto. 

On which account your Petitioners (with great deference and sub- 
mission to your Honours superior wisdom & judgement) presume to de- 
clare that they apprehend it to be of great importance not only to the 
Inhabitants of Marthas Vineyard but also to this and other American 
States that it be kept from falling into the Hands of the enemy. But 
this without further Protection from your Honours we see no way to pre- 
vent For we apprehend this Island to be in great Danger of such an 
attack from the Enemy as the Inhabitants thereof will not be able to with- 
stand. For the number of men on this Island able to bear arms hath 
of late been greatly diminished & is still diminishing by their shipping 
themselves on board of continental & other cruizers against the enemy; 
and also not a little weakened by our Disagreement of opinion with Respect 

359 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

to thefmost proper course we can take for our safety. For while your 
Petitioners with many other Inhabitants of this Island are fully satisfied 
that the present war is on the American side just & necessary, and are 
ready to exert themselves to the utmost in every suitable way in support 
of the American cause, There are yet (we are sorry to find ground to say 
it) some here who have manifested at least a Doubt of our being in the 
Right, in taking up arms and fighting against the Forces of the King of 
Great Britain, and they with others have openly expressed a Belief that 
Britain will conquer & subdue America, and have labored to infuse such 
a belief into others; and whatever effect this hath had, it is a certain mat- 
ter of Fact that there is a considerable number of men here who appear 
to be very Doubtful which side will finally overcome, and obtain what 
they are contending and fighting for, and who therefore chuse to be as 
stil and inactive as possible in the present contest and are accordingly 
averse to doing anything towards the Defending of this Island by arms. 

To which Principle we impute it That when ten Freeholders of this 
Town by a writing under their hands, lately requested the Selectmen to 
call a meeting of the Inhabitants of the Town to consider and determine 
what it was proper for them to do for their safety in this Time of Danger. 
This Request was not complied with. By which means we found our- 
selves obliged to petition your Honours in the way we do, as Individ- 
uals, suscribing our names hereto. In short we wish that your Honours 
might have a just and full conception of the Danger this Island is in by 
Means of its exposed situation (while the Enemy is so powerful & no 
further than about twelve leagues therefrom) when it is so weak & de- 
fenceless a state as it now is, & also what Imporatance it is that it be kept 
from falling into the hands of the Enemy. 

A true representation hereof we have here given But not too full and 
clear a representation as to convey to your Honours such an idea of the 
state of the Island with respect to the present American troubles, as your 
Honours would have if you had been some time resident here. And with 
regard to the state of this Island which we have represented the Prayer 
of your Petitioners is That no such measure may be adopted to keep the 
stock on said Island from falling into the Hands of the Enemy as that of 
removing it to some other place. For if nothing better than this can be 
done with the stock belonging to Marthas Vineyard, to what a state of 
wretchedness must the owTiers thereof be reduced! For if that stock be 
removed where will they find pasture or Hay for it? And if for want 
thereof they are obliged to sell it, where will they find Buyers who will 
give them anything near the value thereof? And in this way the People 
of this Island would be likely to suffer almost a total loss of their Stock. 

They would suffer also for a time at least (and who knows for how 
long a time ?) the loss of their Houses and lands, which they must depart. 
For without stock they will not be able to till it. And if this Island be 
forsaken by its inhabitants, it will (without such a Protection as would 
be now sufficient for their Defence) in all Probability be taken possession 
of by the Enemy; and how detrimental this would be to this & the neigh- 
bouring states; we have already in some measure shewn. Your petition- 
ers also pray That seeing this Island is so exposed & in so weak & de- 
fenceless a state as hath been shewn, no men maybe taken from hence 
to serve as soldiers elsewhere. For as said Islands when all the men now 



3&0 



The Vineyard Abandoned to Neutrality 



therein continue there is so weak & defenceless how improper a thing must 
it be if it can be avoided, Still further to weaken it by taking men from 
thence where they are so much needed? And besides how greatly must it 
distress a Man who has a wife & several small children, or aged feeble 
Parents to take care of to be compeled to hazard his hfe in War at a great 
distance from them and leave them in a place exposed as this is to the 
outrageous hostilities of the Enemy, when by continuing with them he 
might afford them some help & Protection. What we have offered we 
pray your Honours to take into your consideration and Intreat that besides 
suffering the men here to continue in this place your Plonours would be 
pleased to send a number of men to this Island for its Protection as your 
Honours in your great wisdom shall judge proper and that your Honours 
would afford for the Protection of the Elizabeth Islands at least an equal 
number of men to that which was last stationed there and your Petitioners 
as in Duty bound shall ever pray. 



Samuel Hillman, 
Benjamin Hatch, 
Thomas Hillman, 
Silas Bassett, 
Joseph Bassett, 
James Norton, Jr. 
Joseph Mayhew, 
Samuel Mayhew, 
Simeon Mayhew, 
James Norton, 
Robert Hillman, 
John Mayhew, 



William TiUon, 
Abner Mayhew, 
Samuel Mayhew, Jr. 
Jethro Mayhew, 
Benjamin Hillman, 
David Hillman, 
Josiah Mayhew, 
John Bassett, 
John Hillman, 
John Cottle, 
Benjamin Hillman, Jr. 
Richard Hillman.* 



Joseph Mayhew, Jr. 
Mark Mayhew, 
Samuel Norton, 
Fort. Bassett, 
Benja. Bassett, 
Jonathan Bassett, 
Cornelius Bassett, 
Timothy Mayhew, 
Nathaniel Nickerson, 
John Cottle, Jr. 
Abner Hillman, 



This statement discloses a condition of affairs in Chil- 
mark which has been referred to in previous contemporary 
documents and letters from there. It is evident that a con- 
siderable number of Tories remained in Chilmark, even at 
this date. They exercised a restraining, not to say discourag- 
ing, influence upon the patriots of that town, and the efforts 
of Joseph Mayhew to further the cause of American liberty 
were checked at every turn by them. Added to this class 
were those well described as manifesting ''at least a Doubt 
of our being in the Right," and lying low, waiting events, 
"very Doubtful which side will finally overcome." Such men 
offer but little that is worthy of more comment. This situation 
made for discontent and indifference on the part of the Massa- 
chusetts authorities, and at this period they were not in a 
position to temporize with communities holding these uncertain 
sentiments, or communities influenced by those who did. 
After considering the whole situation, the General Court felt 

'Mass. Archives, CLXXXII, 88. 



361 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

that the island must be abandoned as a military post, but as 
yet it took no decisive action. Determined to make one more 
effort to prevent this disastrous prospect, the freeholders of 
Tisbury prepared and sent the following petition to the Court 
for further consideration. 

To the Honourable the Council and The House of Representatives 
of the State of Massachusetts Bay in New Englnad, 

Humbly sheweth The Inhabitants of the Town of Tisbury in Dukes 
County, That the Exposed situation of that Island has been well known 
to your Honours to say it is in the Power of the Enemy is needless. Our 
Inability to Defend our Selves must be well known. 

We therefore Humbly & earnestly Request your Honours to grant 
us some Assistance under our exposed situation To defend us against a 
Force that may be Expected to Attack the Place and Secure a Lodgement 
cannot be expected by so small a number as is now on This Island & 
They constantly entering into the Continental army and Navy. We there- 
fore Pray this Petition may be Taken under your wise consideration and 
Grant us such Relief as you in your wisdom shall Think necessary & 
we as in Duty Bound shall ever Pray. 

Tisbury, nth March A. D. 1777. 

Tames Athearn, ") ^ -^^ c ^u 
5 of Comitte for the 

Shubael Cottle, > ^ r t- u 1 

T.T o \ town of iisbury.^ 

Nathan Smith, j •' 

This had no favorable result. If anything, it merely 
brought the General Court's attention to the consideration of 
a subject that had by that time been all but settled in their 
minds. 

ABANDONMENT OF THE ISLAND CONSIDERED. 

Three companies had been stationed on the island at the 
expense of the Colony of Massachusetts, and the accounts 
for their subsistence are still in existence showing expendi- 
tures to the amount of ;^2625-o-o through September, 1776. 
This drain was severely felt by the colonial authorities, and 
in December following the General Court took the first move 
towards disarmament directing that those soldiers whose terms 
were expiring be not re-enlisted and that the remainder be 
continued in service until March, 1777. When this date ar- 
rived, the General Court found that the burden was too heavy 
to carry, and passed the following Resolve which condemned 
the island to the mercies of the enemy. 

'Mass. Archives, CLXXXII, 220. 
362 



The Vineyard Abandoned to Neutrality 

In the House of Representatives 
March 29, 1777 

Whereas the Island of Marthas Vineyard is so situated that it must 
put this State to great expense to defend it, should our enemies make it 
an object of their attention, and as the removal of the inhabitants of said 
Island to the Maine would be attended with many and great inconveniences 
to them and cost to the State, therefore. 

Resolved: that it be and hereby is recommended to the Inhabitants 
of Marthas Vine3-ard to send off said Island as many of their cattle as 
are not absolutely necessary for their present and immediate support, 
that they may be in a better capacity to retreat from the enemy, if they 
should be attacked by a force they are not able to oppose.' 

This was sent to the Council for concurrence, where it 
met with some dissent, as but fifteen members concurred in 
this recommendation. Accordingly, two days later, after con- 
sultation between the two bodies, another draught of this plan, 
modified in some particulars, was passed by both branches of 
the General Court. This new form is as follows: — 

In Council March 29, 1777. 

Whereas the Island of Marthas Vineyard is so situated that it must 
put the State to great expense to defend it should our Enemies make that 
an object of their attention, and as the removal of the Inhabitants of said 
Island to the main would be attended with many and great Inconveniences 
to them and cost to the State, 

Therefore Resolved: that it be and it is hereby recommended to the 
Inhabitants of Marthas Vineyard to send off said Island as many of their 
cattle, sheep and other goods as are' not absolutely necessary to their 
present support, and it is recommended to the Justices of the Peace. 
The Field officers and Selectmen of the several Towns on said Island to 
consult and agree upon such a mode of conduct of the People of said 
Island to pursue as they may judge most proper an it is recommended 
to said Inhabitants strictly to pursue the mode that shall be so pointed 
out for their safety.^ 

Left at last to themselves and to fate, the Vineyarders 
saw that the State had placed them where they must work out 
their own salvation. It was ^'Sauve qui peut,^' and their 
patriotism was put to the test. But they did not further flinch. 
The remaining men able to bear arms prepared as best they 
could for defence, and awaited events. Many who could not 
remain inactive enlisted in regiments on the mainland, but the 
larger number found employment in privateers, where they 
could find better opportunities for their capacities as sea- 



^Mass. Archives (Records of the General Court), 
^ass. Archives, CCXIII, 42. 



3^3 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

faring men. At this time Cornelius Marchant sailed on a 
voyage, which shows how daring those men were in the extent 
of their operations. "On the 22 of January 1777" he wrote, 
''I entered on board the Ship Marlborough of Providence, of 
twenty Guns out and twenty four guns home, commanded by 
George Wad. Babcock of South or North Kingston; after 
passing the British, which lay in the harbour of New Port and 
Seconnet river we put for Edgartown harbour to obtain a Com- 
plement of Men and Officers; from whence in a few days 
she departed and proceeded on her Cruise. About the last of 
April 1777 we arrived at the Islands of Deloss on the Coast of 
Africa, where we destroyed a large Store house belonging to 
the British, took a Schooner laden with Brass Kettels; Also 
a little lower down the Coast captured two Ships one laden 
with Goods the other with a Cargo of Slaves, which were sent 
to Martinico where they safely arrived. In the same Cruise 
captured a large Brig laden with Ivory and Dye Wood sent 
her to the United States, where within 30 Leagues of Halifax 
we Captured the Ship John of Leithe, a large Transport richly 
laden with supplies for the British Army at New York; she 
safely arrived at Boston. We also retook a Brig laden with 
lumber & fish from Newburry Port bound to Cadiz in New 
Bedford in safety; we like wise captured which we thought 
not worth manning. We arrived in the Marlborough and the 
ship John our Prize in Boston in the month of July of same 
year 1777, after an Absence of five or six months."^ 

The force upon the Elizabeth Islands, small as it was, 
kept up a show of activity, under the command of Elisha Nye. 
The following letter from him at this date will furnish some 
insight into the difficulties of a frontier post in those times: — 

Tarrpoland Cove Island, March 31st 1777 
Gentn : 

As you have seen fitt to appoint me to the Command of a Company 
stationed hear I think it my Duty to Inform your Honners that I Rased 
the Company soon after I Rec'd your orders there for and I took my 
station. I also think it my Duty to Inform your Honners what military 
stores I Rec'd from Maj'r Dimuck which are as follows: 20 Rounds in 
Cartriges a man 45 lb pouder 122 lb Lead in balls 140 flints 2 Cannon 
22 Cartriges of Pouder for the Cannon balls. I humbly think it will be 
the best that there be ordered a further supply of Powder for the Cannon 
as without them I shant be able to keep the Harbour there having ben 
severall attempts maid by the Enemy to Ly in the Harbour, which would 
Cut of all Communication from Dartmouth the Vineyard from the Main 

*Mass. Hist. Soc. Proceedings, iqoo. 
364 



The Vineyard Abandoned to Neutrality 

that Vessels can not pass, but by the help of the Cannon I have been 
able to keep them out and make no Dout shall be able to keep the Har- 
bour Clear if not over powered by a number of ships. 

Your Honners will observe that 63 at least Cartriges of Powder for 
Cannon is wanting and I humbly pray that y'r Honners will order in the 
hand of Benoni Nichoson appon'd Commasury for the Company what is 
wanting or as Your Honners shall otherways think fitt. 

I Remain 
With Great Respect your faithfuU servant 

ELISHA NYE. 
To the Hon'ble Councell of the State 
of the Massachusetts Bay.* 

THE ISLAND REDUCED TO A NEUTRAL ZONE. 

The General Court met in session May 28, this year, and 
it is significant that no representative from Dukes County 
appeared. Whether it was intentional cannot be said with 
certainty. It would be no more than human nature for the 
people of the Vineyard to resent their abandonment by the 
authorities to the tender mercies of the enemy. However, it 
may have been unavoidable or accidental. During the twelve 
months following absolute silence appears to have reigned 
upon the Vineyard. Where the town records in previous 
years had teemed with frequent entries of the actions and 
proposals of the freeholders to advance the cause of American 
freedom, now no one would suspect that a war was going on. 
Not a reference to it appears in any of the three towns. It 
was an enforced silence. We know where their hearts were 
during the great struggle, and doubtless the strong sense of 
independence so characteristic of islanders rendered their com- 
mon inaction a daily source of chagrin and regret. To have 
engaged in active operations as a community against the crown 
would have invited practical annihilation without an equiva- 
lent gain, for the loss of their homes and property would not 
have helped on the patriot cause one iota. In some situations 
it is necessary for a military purpose that some portions of an 

'Mass. Archives, CXCVI, 347. Freeman gives some personal information about 
Elisha Nye, in connection with the Revolutionary War, which is of interest. " Upon 
the first appearance of the enemy, Mr. Elisha Nye, who was resident there as an inn- 
keeper (Tarpaulin Cove), and who suffered from the indignities the British Sloop of 
War Falkland, Captain Linzey, offered to himself and family, made deposition of the 
same, which was laid before the Provincial Congress; whereupon Congress directed 
Capt. John Grannis to provide 30 men and arms and repair without delay to the 
Elizabeth Islands for their protection. Captain Grannis raised his company here 
(Falmouth), and they did good service; but the force though increased to 50 was 
altogether inadequate to the work assigned them." (History of Cape Cod, II, 452.) 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

army should be deliberately sacrificed in order to gain the 
greater benefit for the entire body, but this does not apply to 
the Vineyard in the struggle of 1775. 

The only sign of life shown here in the period named is 
found in a petition addressed to the General Court early in 
1778 by some of the inhabitants of Tisbury, who asked for 
facilities to get provisions to the island. The full text best 
explains their desires, and it is printed below : — 

To the Honorable the Council Sz: House of Representatives of the 
State of Massachusetts Bay. 

The Petition of us the Subscribers Inhabitance of the Town of Tis- 
bury in Dukes County. Humbly sheweth that whereas your Petitioners 
are situated on an Island that Doth not Produce its own Provitions but 
are obliged to seek it out of the State of Connecticut and the Govener and 
Commites of that State oblige our Boats to Enter and Clear & give Bond 
as Tho' they were vessells of one hundred tuns, and as there is no Naval 
officer in this Island by which menes our Boats are not able to Carey 
Proper vouchers that they have landed there Cargos at this Place for 
whant of which they have been accused of going to Ne^vport. For Remedy 
thereof we Pray your Honours to appoint sum met Person to that office, 
and we would not Dictate your honers in this case. But we would Pro- 
pose for that office to your honers Shubael Cottle, Esq as met Person 
and Living near the water and in the Midest of the Boats that follow 
that Impl(o)y, or other ways Provide for us as you in your grate wisdom 
shall think Proper as in Duty Bound shall ever Pray.^ 

This request was approved February 4, following. One 
other evidence of existence occurs in the letter written by 
Beriah Norton from Roxbury, April 16, 1778, in which he 
notifies the Council that "there is a Quantata of Powder Be- 
longing to this State Lodged at Marthers Vinyard," he de- 
sired direction what to do with it, "otherwise it may Be taken 
By the enemy or lost." The Council on the same day ordered 
Joseph Mayhew to deliver the ammunition to the commanding 
officer of the fort at Dartmouth, and thus the last means of 
defence was removed. Henceforth, the Vineyard was to be 
out of the calculations of the Commonwealth to which it be- 
longed. 

»Mass. Archives, CCXVII, 45. 



366 



Grey's Raid 



CHAPTER XXIV. 
Grey's Raid. 

We now are come to the great event of the Revolution as 
affecting the Vineyard, the raid of General Sir Charles Grey 
in the month of September, 1778, supported by a detachment 
of troops, numbering over four thousand men, convoyed by a 
dozen ships of the line and a score of transports. It has been 
told in song and story and tradition by the children of the 
generation who saw our island at the mercy of this large body 
of hostile soldiery, and under the hundred guns of the king's 
navy. The whole history of it has never been written before, 
with the documentary evidences now available from both sides 
of the water, and the narrative which follows will present such 
testimony, given both by the British and the American par- 
ticipators in this affair, and thus for the first time we can 
read of it as seen by the actors themselves. Most of the docu- 
ments cited have never before been published, particularly the 
accounts of Major Andre, whilst some of the contemporary 
documents and reports of our people have had limited circula- 
tion in local newspapers only, or in brief descriptions attempted 
by writers without the advantage of complete information on 
all the surrounding circumstances. 

It is not a story of military heroism or glory, nor one cal- 
culated to thrill an audience of Revolutionary sons to the 
cheering point. And yet it is a part of the history of the great 
struggle, and as an incident in the annals of the Vineyard is 
worthy of being set out in such fulness of detail as we can now 
accord it. 

The year 1778 was the darkest for Great Britain since the 
beginning of the Revolution of the American colonies. Her 
ancient enemy, France, had acknowledged the independence 
of the thirteen states of America, and treaties of alliance and 
commerce passed between Louis XVI and the Continental 
Congress, greatly to the joy of the struggling patriots on the 
Delaware, just emerging from the sufferings of Valley Forge, 
and to the chagrin of the English ministry, who now felt that 
another war had been practically declared. General Sir Will- 
iam Howe, who from the first of his career in America at 
Bunker Hill, had proven a dismal military failure, relinquished 

367 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

his command, in response to general criticism in Parliament, 
and on May 24, at Philadelphia, Sir Henry Clinton assumed 
control of the fortunes of the British troops. In accordance 
with orders from the ministry, says Bancroft, "Clinton was 
ordered to abandon Philadelphia to hold New York and Rhode 
Island; to lay waste Virginia by means of ships of war, and 
to attack Providence, Boston and all accessible ports between 
New York and Nova Scotia, destroying vessels, wharfs, stores 
and material for shipbuilding." This policy of destruction 
betrayed the spirit of revenge and cruelty, inspired, doubtless, 
by the general feeling that the war was a failure, and America 
lost to the crown through a long continued policy of unutter- 
able ministerial stupidity. 

Clinton reached New York with his army after fighting 
the battle of Monmouth with Washington in the latter part 
(28th) of June. Meantime France had been giving practical 
effect to her treaty of alliance by sending a fleet of vessels, 
under the command of Count d'Estaing, which appeared off 
Newport, R. I., the last of July, after several prior anchorages. 
The British forces, six thousand in number, were strongly in- 
trenched there, but had no naval force. Consequently they 
were at the mercy of d'Estaing, and to prevent capture a small 
squadron under their control was destroyed by themselves. 
It consisted of ten or more armed ships and galleys carrying 
212 guns. 

Sir Henry Clinton, who had been informed of the pro- 
jected attack on Newport, sent 6000 troops in transports from 
New York under convoy of Lord Howe's fleet, which arrived 
off the harbor on the loth. A violent storm prevented the 
naval engagement between Howe and d'Estaing which both 
had been courting, and the two fleets having ridden out the 
hurricane, were both hors du combat, with all the fight knocked 
out of them by the elements. 

As a result of this situation, both commanders retired for 
repairs, Lord Howe to Sandy Hook and Count d'Estaing to 
Boston. On August 29 and 30 the land forces of the British 
and Americans under the command of Generals Pigot and 
Sullivan respectively, had a battle on Quaker Hill, resulting 
in the withdrawal of General Sullivan from the island on the 
night succeeding the second day's engagement. The day fol- 
lowing Lord Howe returned from New York with reinforce- 
ments under Clinton, and landed four thousand men twenty- 
four hours after Sullivan's escape. Nothing remained for him 

368 



Grey's Raid 

to do, and Clinton, finding the Newport garrison short of 
provisions, detached a foragmg party of great strength to re- 
lieve the situation, which has received the name of "Grey's 
Raid" from the officer who led it. 

The expedition under General Sir Charles Grey, intended 
to harass the south-eastern coast of Massachusetts and Rhode 
Island, consisted of the ist Battalion of Light Infantry, 637 
men, the ist Battalion of Grenadiers, 624 men, the 3d Brigade, 
comprising the 15th, the 42d, the 44th Regiments; the 4th 
Brigade, comprising the 33d, the 46th, the 64th, and the 37th 
Regiments; Artillery, Pioneers, and dismounted Light Dra- 
goons, making a total effective strength of 4333 men, em- 
barked in twenty transports and convoyed by the Carysfort, 
Zebra, Diligent, Rose, Galatea, Camilla, Fowey, Vigilant, 
Swan, Raven, and Scorpion, vessels of war/ They embarked 
on August 27, at Whitestone, L. L, and sailed for Newport, 
where they arrived on September i, to find that the American 
troops had evacuated that place on the preceding day. Part 
of the expedition went to New London for a sortie, but ac- 
complished nothing. Then a return was made to Newport, 
and on the voyage Lord Howe's fleet was hailed and "it was 
thought advisable to proceed to (New) Bedford in Buzzards 
Bay."' 

The fleet under Grey reached Clark's Cove about sunset 
of the 5th, and spent the next two days in destroying property, 
vessels, earthworks, and chasing " rebel " militia into the 
interior. In these skirmishes, the British lost one killed, four 
wounded, and eleven "missing." 

On the conclusion of this affair the troops were re-em- 
barked, and proceeded to their next objective point, the Vine- 
yard. 

THE COMMANDER OF THE EXPEDITION. 

It will be instructive, as a preliminary preparation to the 
narrative itself, to know something of the personality of the 
officer who was at the head of this expedition, Charles Grey, 
then major general of his majesty's forces. He was in his 

'Captain Robert Fanshawe, commanding the Carysjort frigate, wrote a letter 
to Lord George Germaine, dated Sept. 6, 1778, off (New) Bedford, enclosing a copy 
of Rear Admiral Gambler's orders to the accompanying fleet. (Remembrancer, 1778; 
comp., Freeman, "History of Cape Cod.") 

^"The fleet consisting of 47 sail anchored in the harbour," wrote an officer of 
Colonel Crafts' regiment, stationed at Bedford. (Pennsylvania Packet, Sept. 29, 
1778.) 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

fiftieth year, having been born in 1729 at Howick, Northum- 
berland, the second surviving son of Sir Henry Grey, first 
baronet of that title. He was designed for an army career, 
and at nineteen he obtained an ensigncy of Foot, and saw 
service in the Rochefort expedition of 1757, and at Minden 
in 1759, where he was wounded while acting as aide-de-camp 
to Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick. He was commissioned 
lieutenant-colonel in 1761 and assigned to the 98th Foot, 
which he commanded at the seige of Belle Isle and the capture 
of Havana. In 1763, when peace was declared, he was placed 
on half pay. In 1772 he was promoted to the rank of colonel, 
and detailed as aide-de-camp to the king. He came to North 
America in 1776, with the reinforcements under General 
Howe, and was appointed to the local rank of major general 
in America, - which was made substantive two years later. 
He surprised a force under Major- General Anthony Wayne, 
and routed them on the 21st of September, 1777, at which 
time he ordered the flints removed from the muskets of his 
troops to prevent any possible betrayal of their advance, from 
which he acquired the nickname of "No-Flint Grey." He 
commanded the Third Brigade at the battle of Germantown, 
Oct. 4, 1777. His exploits on this present expedition will be 
described in detail, and follow in chronological sequence his 
previous military record. Upon his return to England in 1782, 
he was appointed and promoted lieutenant-general and made 
a Knight of the Bath, as well as designated the commander-in- 
chief of the army in North America, but the war having ter- 
minated, he never took the actual command. He subsequently 
held commands in several British colonies. He was created 
Baron Grey of Howick in 1801, and in 1806 was advanced to 
the earldom of Grey and was made governor of Guernsey. 
He died Nov. 14, 1807, and was succeeded by his eldest son, 
Charles, the celebrated statesman and champion of Parlia- 
mentary reform, and prime minister of England. It will thus 
be seen that Sir Henry Clinton put the expedition in charge 
of an intrepid officer, of whom it may be said that, if he had 
been charged with the military policy of the war, the results 
might have been different. He was a bold and dashing 
officer. 

'- STAFF AND REGIMENTAL OFFICERS. 

The adjutant-general attached to the expedition Major 
John Andre, who is perhaps the most interesting personality 

370 




MAJ. GEN. SIR CHARLES GREY 



Grey's Raid 

among those who were attached to it, but it will not be necessary 
to enter into his career, so well known to all readers of history. 
His tragic fate has made him one of the most pathetic figures 
of the Revolution. The daily accounts of the movements of 
this expedition, recorded in the official journal of Major Andre, 
will be incorporated in this narrative, as the most detailed and 
authentic statement which we have.^ 

Of the regiments and their commanders a few details 
may be permitted. The 33d, commanded by Lieutenant- 
Colonel James Webster, the 42d (known as the Royal High- 
landers), commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Stirling, 
the 46th (known as the South Devonshire), commanded by 
Lieutenant-Colonel Enoch Markham, the 64th (the South 
Staffordshire), commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Honorable 
Alexander Leslie, the ist Battalion of Light Infantry, and the 
ist Battalion of Grenadiers, composed the military force. The 
colonels of the several regiments were not with the expedition. 
They were noted officers. Lord Cornwallis commanding the 
33d, Lord John Murray the 42d, Honorable Sir John Vaughan, 
K. B., the 46th, and General John Pomeroy the 64th. 

The Carysfort was the flag-ship of the fleet, commanded 
by Captain Robert Fanshawe, R. N., who received his orders 
from Admiral Gambler, commander-in-chief of the American 
squadron. 

The progress of the expedition, prior to its appearance 
in our harbors, is told by Major Andre in his journal, in the 
following entries : — 

(Sept. 6) Major-General Grey determined to proceed from thence, 
(New Bedford), to Martha's Vineyard, and wrote to Sir Robert Pigot at 
Rhode Island to desire he would send vessels to receive cattle. 



Sept. 7th. The Fleet got under way this morning, but the wind fail- 
ing, came to an anchor at 11 o'clock 

8th. The Fleet got under way at noon. The General was obliged 
to reduce the allowance of provisions to two thirds. Came to an anchor 
about two leagues from Quickse's Hole. 

9th. Sailed at 7 in the morning. The ships could not all get thro' 
the Hole before the tide turned. 

loth. The Fleet weighed anchor at 6 in the morning and turned 
thro' the Vineyard Sound passing Tarpaulin Cove, Wood's Hole Harbour 
and Falmouth. The gallies went into the last place and cut out two 
sloops and a schooner and burned another vessel. 

At I o'clock the Carysfort came to an anchor off Holmes's Hole. 
The transports and small vessels were ordered into the Harbour, excepting 

^Journal of Major John Andre, II, 30-43. 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

those which carried the Grenadiers and Light Infantry and 33rd Regiment, 
which Troops General Grey intended taking with him to Nantucket. 

General Grey wished Captain Fanshawe (of the Carysjort) 
to proceed on the Nantucket service without coming to an 
anchor off Homes Hole harbor, as the wind was fair, but 
Captain Fanshawe, insisting on the necessity of assembling 
his captains, the deliberation lasted until the wind changed/ 

THE FLEET AT HOMES HOLE. 

The sight must have been a tlirilling one — two score 
vessels including twelve ships of the line. It amazed and 
terrified the peaceful people, now removed from participation 
in the war and behaving as neutrals. No one loiew whether 
it meant destruction, or a fleet seeking anchorage. A com- 
mittee of leading citizens was chosen to find out the intentions 
of this formidable gathering. Col. Beriah Norton was its 
head, and we have his account of what transpired from his 
own statement. He says: — 

th 10. General Gray, Commanding a detachment of his Majesty's 
army, arrived at Martha's Vineyard Sep'r 10, 1778, when I waited on him 
on board ship & agreed to deliver him 10,000 Sheep & 300 head of Cattle, 
the General informing me at the same time that payment would be made 
for the Same. The General then required the Stock to be brought to the 
landing the next day. 

Andre's account of the interview is as follows: — 

In the evening a Flag of Truce with three Committeemen came on 
board. They professed the most peaceable dispositions and the utmost 
readiness to comply with the General's requisitions. General Grey or- 
dered them ashore to direct the inhabitants to drive in their sheep and 
cattle, or that Troops should be marched thro' the Island; likewise to 
bring in their arms, or that the Colonel and Captains of the Militia should 
be sent prisoners to New York. 

General Grey adds further particulars: 

On our arrival off the Harbour the inhabitants sent persons on board 
to ask my intentions with respect to them, to which a requisition was 
made of the arms of the Militia, the public money, 300 oxen and 10,000 
sheep: They promised each of these articles should be delivered without 
delay. 

^"From the difficulties of passing out of Buzzard's Bay into the Vineyard Sound 
thro' Quickses Hole, and from the head winds, the Fleet did not reach Holmes's Hole 
Harbour in the Island of Marthas Vineyard, until the loth. The Transports with 
the Light Infantry, Grenadiers, and 33rd Regiments, were anchored without the 
Harbour, as I had at that time a service in view for those corps whilst the business 
of collecting cattle should he carrying on upon the Island. I was obliged by contrary 
wind to relinquish my designs." (Report of Gen. Chas. Grey, Vol. 134, P. R. C, 
London.) 



Grey's Raid 

To give the demands permanent character the general 
directed his aide to issue a written order to Colonel Norton, 
so that the inhabitants of the island should not profess ignor- 
ance of the things required of them through their represen- 
tatives as an excuse for non-compliance. This order was 
given:. — 

^ . , ^, The Carysfort, loth Sept. 1778 

Beriah Norton, ^ ' ^ " 

Colonel of Militia at IVIartha's Vineyard, 
Is required to order the Militia of the Island to assemble at Day Light 
to Morrow morning. Collect the horned cattle (milch Cows excepted) & 
Sheep in their Different Districts & proceed with them to Homeses hole. 
They are expected at the appointed place precisely at two in the afternoon, 
in failure of which the Troops will March at that hour to Collect them. 
The Militia are ordered to bring their armes, accoutrements and ammu- 
nition. 

B. SYMES . 
Aide-de-Camp to Gen'l Grey 

Humiliating as this was, there seemed no alternative but 
to accede, as resistance would be futile against the force swarm- 
ing on board the armed vessels. Colonel Norton thereupon 
issued the following order to the various officers of the island 
militia : — 

Dukes County, Sept. loth, 1778. 

To Captain 

Agreeable to orders I have this Day Received from Major General 
Gray, now commanding the British Army on bord the King's fleet in 
holmesis hole, you are hereby ordered to muster your Company of militia 
By Day Light to-morrow morning, & collect all the oxen & sheep in your 
District, and Bring them, with your arms, acuterments and amunition, to 
holmesis hole harbour, By two o'Clock to-morrow; there to Receive fur- 
ther orders. 

BERIAH NORTON, Colo. 

Messengers were dispatched to the settlements "up island," 
and we may imagine the astonishment of the isolated farmers, 
aroused by these notifications, delivered in hurried words, 
to collect all their horned cattle, milch cows excepted, all their 
sheep and swine, and drive them down to the harbor at the 
"Hole" without delay, or suffer military punishment! They 
were hastily told that there were over forty ships in that harbor, 
and about four thousand troops ready to strike, if compliance 
was refused. The night must have been an anxious one. 
Also one of scheming, for the men and v/omen of the island 
had some spirit left, and as the first astonishment died out, 

373 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

they began to plan how to save something out of their herds 
and flocks for themselves. Some led a few pets into the woods 
and tied them up in dense thickets. It is stated that one panic- 
stricken female drove her cow up into the attic, where she was 
locked safely during the four days that the raid lasted. Many 
amusing stories are related of this character which show^ a 
vein of fanciful improbability. But we are dealing with facts 
in history, and must not be led away from the true narrative 
of undisputed evidence. The morning of the nth (Friday) 
came and found the people all over the island, under guidance 
of the militia, stirring early to start on their long and irksome 
drive from Chilmark, Edgartown, and Middletown, with 
sheep and cattle, raising long clouds of dust along the high- 
ways. The troops in the fleet were in readiness to enforce 
the demands of their officers. 

THE FORAGING BEGINS. 

Andre makes the following record of the day's doings 
from his point of view: — 

nth. A detachment of 150 men from each of the Corps in the Har- 
bour disembarked under Lieutenant-Colonel StirHng. He consented not 
to march into the country provided the inhabitants should immediately 
furnish 10,000 sheep and 300 oxen with hay for them. Twenty vessels 
from Rhode Islands arrived to take in stock. 

Colonel Norton's diary of the proceedings adds some 
further particulars of the day's doings, and is quoted in full: — 

th II. This day the troops Landed under the Command of Colo. Sterling. 
Said Sterling then informed me that General Grey had directed him to 
assure me that the whole of the Stock should be paid for if they came 
down according to our Conversation last Night., 

Colo. Sterling then informed me that persons must be appointed to 
apprize the Stock before he would take any on Ship board, to which I 
agreed, & we jointly agreed to & did appoint proper persons to that 
business, which persons ware Sworn by me to the faithfull discharge of 
there trust by the request of Colo. Sterling. 

The troops landed at the head of Vineyard Haven harbor, 
and camped on the open field now traversed by Main street, 
and north of Church street. It was the first close view of 
British ''regulars" which the Vineyarders had obtained since 
the war opened. Although their mission was hardly of a war- 
like character, under the circumstances, yet it might have been 
accompanied by casualties, if resistance were offered. We 

374 



Grey's Raid 

may imagine how the two girls, Polly Daggett and Maria 
Allen felt in spirit about this time, as they saw the hated "red- 
coats" helping themselves to what they wanted and nobody 
to deny them/ Two of their demands were especially dis- 
tasteful, — the surrender of their arms and the public funds. 
Their muskets and swords could be concealed, and they did 
not intend to give them up until compelled. Who can picture 
Captain Nathan Smith handing over his sword without resis- 
tance? The second day passed without any important de- 
velopments. Cattle and small stock came steadily down to 
the landing stage, and preparations were made to load them 
on the vessels which General Grey had requisitioned from 
Newport. 

MILITIA OFFICERS ARRESTED FOR CONCEALING ARMS. 

The 1 2th (Saturday) was the third day of their stay, and 
was filled with the most active work on all sides. It was a 
time for General Grey to take note of the results, thus far, 
of the compliance with his orders. The cattle and the sheep 
were constantly, if slowly, being driven up to the appointed 
place, but there was a suspicious slowness about other and more 
important demands. Major Andre gives us new and valuable 
testimony: — 

1 2th. Wind unfavourable for Nantucket. A quantity of stock was 
embarked for Rhode Island and the vessels sailed. 

The 17th, 37th and 46th regiments were ordered from their dif- 
ferent positions to the beach. The 44th, under Colonel Donkin, marched 
towards the southeast end of the island.' Only 229 stand of arms having 
been brought in, the colonel and five captains were confined. The com- 
mittee men were likewise confined for having concealed a quantity of 
ammunition. 

Colonel Norton makes mention of this incident of his 
arrest, with that of the militia officers and the committee. 
We can only conjecture who they were. Besides himself it 
is probable that Barachiah Bassett, the colonel of the seacoast- 
defence, Captains Benjamin and Nathan Smith, and Jeremiah 
Manter, of the same corps; Uriah Tilton, major of militia, 
and a further guess might be made of any of the captains 
enumerated in the roster of April, 1776, heretofore given. 
Who the committee men were is not so easy to determine, 

^It will be remembered that Parnell Manter, the third of the "Liberty Pole" 
girls, was dead at this time, having deceased in the previous July, 
^his is an error in direction, as Donkin went to Chilmark. 

375 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

but we may suspect that either Shubael Cottle, James Athearn, 
or Joseph Mayhew were numbered among its members. 
Otis called them "the head Whiggs."^ Grey now undertook 
to give the Vineyard a lesson in the folly of resistance to the 
king's troops, and he ordered the detachments already landed 
to march into the interior of the island, and force compliance 
with his demand for all arms to the utmost. The Scorpion, 
under command of Captain Philip Brown, was sent to Edgar- 
towTi, where her crew found congenial occupation in burning 
and destroying vessels. Colonel Stirling of the Royal High- 
landers headed a land force to that town, while Colonel Donkin 
took another ''up island" in the direction of West Tisbury 
and Chilmark to hasten the people there. The troops in 
various detachments scoured nearly the whole island, and 
gathered up everything that was eatable that they could lay 
their hands on; live stock of all kinds, vegetables, corn, rye, 
etc. Brigadier Joseph Otis, then at Falmouth, gives us a 
picturesque description of their work. He says they 

caryed off and Destroyed all the corn and Roots two miles round Homes 
Hole Harbour: Dug up the Ground everywhere to search for goods the 
people hid; even so Curious were they in searching as to Disturb the 
ashes of the Dead: Many houses had all RifSed and their Windows 
broke. ^ 

INCIDENTS OF THE RAID. 

Those living about Homes Hole were the greatest suf- 
ferers from the raid. Undoubtedly, much was done to annoy 
and damage. The people were indignant, but helpless to 
resist, except in spirit, and it is not difficult to imagine the 
attitude of the high-spirited women of the island, when their 
pantries, chicken coops, and closets were opened and looted 
in the execution of the general's orders, "to acclerate their 
compliance with the demand," as he states. Being a blood- 
less campaign, it is also probable that the soldiers took malic- 
ious delight in frightening and "bantering" those who could 
be so treated, knowing that resistance was out of the calcula- 
tion of the victims. That much wanton destruction and 
desecration was indulged in is certain. Soldiers in war times 

'In 1782 Colonel Norton refers to his arrest in the following language: "How- 
painful then my reflections must have been — when I was exerting myself to the 
utmost in the services injoined upon me by the General, to be Confined as a Prisoner 
upon such trivial pretences! I acknowledge I felt a degree of mortification on that 
occasion not easily to be expressed." (Memorial to Board of Officers [British] at New 
York.) 

^Letter to President of Council, dated Sept. 17, 1778. 




LIEUT. COL. ALEX.\NI)ER LEvSLIE 

COMMANDING 
THE 64TH KEGIMKNT 

i73'-i794 



Grey*s Raid 

know no restraint in the enemy's country. Tlie Vineyard, 
since the first blow of the Revokition had been struck, was a 
gauntlet for the ships of war to run, and the recollection of 
constant dangers to their vessels made them ready to inflict 
all the injury they could on non-combatants. An instance of 
this is related of the house formerly occupied by the late John 
Holmes of Vineyard Haven. Major Peter Norton, then living 
in this house, upon seeing the imposing British fleet enter the 
harbor, departed with his goods and effects of value to a place 
of safety, he having previously in some way made himself 
particularly offensive to the British. The soldiers in prowling 
about, perceiving the house closed, forced an entrance, and 
finding the door leading into the front room hooked on the 
inside, in order to get at it, split it in pieces with their bayonets, 
and the door was not repaired thereafter, remaining in the same 
condition until it was destroyed. Several bricks in the hearth 
— large square ones brought from England when the house 
was built — bore marks also, where they pried them up to 
get at some supposed secreted treasure.* Similar stories are 
told of other localities, varied by local surroundings. For- 
tunately there were no "Hessian hirelings" in these foraging 
parties, else we might have the painful record of personal 
assaults instead. 

A squad of foreigners alighted upon the cottage of an 
aged dame dwelling alone with her little grandson, and in 
spite of prayers and entreaties to spare the widow's living, 
they took possession of all her live stock, sheep, pigs, cow. 
As they were about to move off, a sergeant, who had an eye 
for delicacies, spied a sleek and wefl-fed grunter concealed 
behind the old woman's petticoats. Immediately half a dozen 
grenadiers advanced to capture the coveted quadruped, but 
the good dame's prayerful tone was changed to one of rebel- 
lious defiance. Seizing a heavy broom-stick she flourished it 
in the face of the enemy in a manner terrible to behold. "Away 
with ye, cursed seed of the oppressor ! despoilers of the widow 
and the fatherless! Take what ye have of mine and begone! 
But this is Josey's pig, and not a hair of him shall ye touch!" 
A struggle ensued, but the broomstick proved a good weapon, 
piggie stuck to his cover, and after several attempts to execute 

'Cottage City Star, Jan. 21, 1883. Mr. John Holmes had in his possession several 
relics of their stay, dug up on his premises. Among these relics were a number of 
old Spanish coins — coined some fifty years previous to the Revolution — a New 
Jersey colonial cent, and several brass buttons belonging to the Massachusetts Artil- 
lery contingent. 

377 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

flank movements, the squad retreated, leaving Josey's pig 
with its lawful proprietors/ 

Meanwhile, the militia officers and committee men were 
"in durance vile," but where we do not know. It is possible 
that they were confined on board of the frigates, perhaps the 
flagship, the Carysjort. Perhaps they were held under guard 
in one of the houses at Homes Hole. The quaint house long 
occupied by Mr. R. W. Crocker, which retains most of its 
original peculiarities of construction, characteristic of that 
period, has some traditions of occupancy by the British during 
this raid. It was directly on the shore, in front of the fleet, 
and the officers doubtless found a brief residence in it a wel- 
come change from the confinement of their cabins. They 
were in charge of the island for four days, and did as they 
pleased for their personal comforts and the transaction of their 
business. The absence of any reference to events of the 12th 
and 13th in the diary of Colonel Norton is significant. As a 
prisoner of war he would be denied writing privileges of a 
private character. 

Thus passed Saturday, the 12th, and Grey records that he 
"was able to embark on board the vessels which arrived that 
day from Rhode Island 6000 sheep and 130 oxen" up to that 
date. 

When they had finished their foraging they came back to 
camp in Vineyard Haven on the slope of the hill, on the land 
where lately stood the houses of Mary T. Crocker, John Holmes, 
and Mary C. Dunham, and the lot now occupied by Mrs. 
Laura Robinson. The street now leading west by the Metho- 
dist church was then quite a deep gulch, partially blocked up 
with boulders, although it was the principal road leading 
westward out of the village. They thus had a forest in their 
rear and left, this gulch on the right, and the harbor with 
their ships in front. 

It is safe to say that Sunday the 13th was anything but a 
day of rest on the Vineyard. It must have been a hard task 
for the ministers to keep their congregations from wandering 
from the texts of the sermons. What Parson Kingsbury of 
Edgartown, Parson Fuller of Chilmark, or Parson Damon of 
Tisbury preached about that September Sabbath can only be 
imagined. 

'Porte Crayon in Harper's Magazine, XXI, 442. This incident is credited by 
descendants to Patience (Hathaway) Dunham, wife, not widow, of Joseph, and it 
has been made the subject of a poem by Rose Terry Cooke. 



Grey's Raid 

We may indulge the thought that the colonel and his 
fellow prisoners had the privilege of listenmg to the fleet chap- 
lain read prayers for their "Gracious Sovereign and all the 
Royal Family," and condemning his enemies to destruction. 
Andre is our only authority for the events of this day, and he 
enters this : — 

13th. The 17th, 37th and 46th Regiments embarked. More arms, 
sheep and oxen were brought in. Two men having deserted, the inhabi- 
tants were required to restore them on pain of having a double number 
of their friends seized. 

A Tender arrived from Lord Howe with orders to the Fleet to return 
to New York. The Nantucket Expedition was, of course, set aside. 

The cattle and sheep were embarked on board the Men-of-war and 
the transports. 

Colonel Donkin was ordered to return from Chilmarck. 

On the heights of the "Company Place" can be seen in 
the mind's eye the younger generation on that Sunday watch- 
ing at a respectful distance the strange sight of their fathers 
delivering up to an inexorable foe the accumulated possessions 
of a life-time. 

Monday the 14th marked the last day of their stay. Co- 
ercion had accomplished the purpose of General Grey. The 
raiding parties had dislodged 159 more stand of arms, and the 
hostages were set at liberty. Andre makes the following 
record in his journal for this day : — 

14th. The remainder of the cattle were embarked. The Troops 
embarked. The deserters were restored and the Militia officers and Com- 
mitteemen released, with a solemn injunction to abstain from taking part 
any more in the War or persecuting others for their political opinions; 
they were also bound to assist the King's ships with water or provisions 
whenever they should call upon them to do it. 

The public money which had been required was paid, being a tax 
just collected by authority of the Congress. A salt work was destroyed 
this day. 

THE AMOUNT OF PLUNDER OBTAINED. 

Colonel Norton being once more a free man is able to 
use his pen, and his diary affords us some further particulars 
of what was done this day from his point of view. It will be 
seen that the business tone is strong in his record of the whole 
affair, as he evidently thought the transaction was merely 
commercial, and not a foraging party scouring the country 

379 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

for provisions for the army. His entry for this day is as 
follows : — 

th 14. Colo. Sterling then informed me & other of the inhabitants that 
he had a message to deliver to the people, when he recommended to them 
to meet in the field as there was not room for the people indoors, accord- 
ingly thay meet to the amount of Several hundred, when he informed us 
that General Gray had directed him to inform us that we ware to apply 
at New York for payment for the Stock they had received. I asked the 
Colo, if we had Beest send a man in the fleet at that time for the payment, 
to which the Colo, replyed we might if we Chose, but recommended to 
us to wait a Little time before Applycation was made. 

The amount of cattle, sheep, &c., which each town fur- 
nished is thus stated in their claim : — 

Sheep. Cattle. 
Chilmark 3903 106 

Edgartown 3919 112 

Tisbury 2752 97 



10574 315 

Besides this there were fifty-two tons of hay, delivered for 
forage during the return voyage. 

Monday was a day of destruction, a sort of ''cleaning up" 
day, which the raiders spent in destroying property. General 
Grey says that they were occupied "in destroying some Salt 
Works, in burning or taking in the Inlets, what vessels and 
boats could be found." Brigadier Otis indignantly wrote 
that they "burnt a Brig that was unrigg'd and a shoar; 3 or 
4 small vessels; all the boats they could find; even took up 
some that were sunk in 4 fathom of Water and Destroyed 
them." The salt works were in the present town of Vineyard 
Haven, situated at the foot of Beach street. It was a valuable 
plant, and the loss of it caused much discomfort. It was a 
wanton act, indefensible under any circumstances. In another 
field a different form of plunder was going on. British officers 
hunted up the town treasurers and, at the point of the sword, 
made William Jernegan of Edgartown, Benjamin Allen of 
Tisbury, and Elijah Smith of Chilmark, then holding those 
positions, disgorge their public moneys, collected for the pay- 
ment of the province tax for that year. In some cases former 
treasurers and collectors, who were charged with the collection 
of back taxes, were likewise forced to give up what they had. 
Altogether about a thousand pounds were obtained by these 

380 



Grey's Raid 

military highwaymen, an equivalent of $20,000 in the money 
of our day/ It may be added that this was not an uncommon 
thing for the British officers to do, and other instances are 
of record showing that the town treasurers of the Vineyard 
as late as 1782 were relieved of public funds in like manner. 
The entire result of the four days' expedition was summed 
up in a report of General Grey, from which the following 
extract covering the operations on this island is taken : — 

In Old Town Harbor, Martha's Vineyard: 

I brig of 150 tons burthen, burnt by the "Scorpion." i schooner of 
70 tons burthen burnt by ditto. 

23 whale boats taken or destroyed. A quantity of plank taken. 

At Holmes Hole, Martha's Vineyard: 

4 vessels, with several boats, taken or destroyed. A salt work de- 
stroyed and a considerable quantity of salt taken. 

Arms taken at Martha's Vineyard: 

388 stand, with bayonets, pouches, etc., some powder, and a quantity 
of lead, as by artillery return. 

;^iooo sterling, in paper, the amount of a tax collected by authority 
of the Congress, was received at Martha's Vineyard from the Collector. 
Cattle and sheep taken from Martha's Vineyard. 300 oxen, 10,000 sheep. 

CHARLES GREY, M. G.^ 

During the whole time they were engaged in this expedi- 
tion, at New Bedford, Falmouth, and here they destroyed 
seven "large" vessels, over a hundred "small" craft, besides 
all sorts of property, wharves, storehouses, and contents. 
One man was killed and several wounded in a skirmish at the 
Acushnet River near Fair haven. The quantity and kind of 
arms secured here is found in a list prepared by the Artillery 
officer charged with the custody of captured material of that 
nature. 

^Resolve on the petition of Elijah Smith of Chilmark directing the treasurer to 
credit said town three hundred and ninety pounds in old continental currency. 

On the petition of Elijah Smith of Chilmark in Dukes County setting forth that 
he was chosen collector of taxes for the said town for the year 1777, and had lists of 
the State Tax committed to him (for the same year), amounting to nine hundred and 
ninety pounds eleven shillings and three pence, and that he had collected thereon 
about 'three hundred and ninety pounds, which was taken from him (together with 
his lists and warrants) by a British officer, who carried them oil. 

Resolved that the treasurer be and he hereby is ordered and directed to credit 
the said Elijah Smith the sum of three hundred and ninety pounds of the old conti- 
nental currency, on account of said tax, and to suspend issuing his execution for the 
residue thereof until the next sitting of the General Court. 

(Laws and Resolves, 1784-5, CXVII, Jime 10, 1785.) 

^Gentleman's Magazine, XLVIII, 540. 

381 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

RETURN of Ammunition, Arms and Accoutrements &c which was 
brought in by the Militia on the Island of Marthas Vineyard, agreeable 
to Major General Grey's orders; Received at Holmes's Cove September 
I2th, 13th & 14th, 1778. 





w> 





a 


III 


(^ 




"0 


i 














S S 




3 




X 


h 


C3 


rt 

003 0, 


^43 

WW 




CM 





Tisbury . . . 


- 


132 


16 


44 


II 


22 


- 


- 


Chilmark . . 


2 


127 


20 


30 


12 


40 


2 


I 


Old Town . . 


- 


129 


13 


3 


2 


9 


2 


— 


Total . . . 


2 


388 


49 


77 


25 


71 


4 


I 



N. B. One Barrel, one half Barrel, and one quarter Barrel of Powder, 
a great number of lead shot or balls of different sizes in Bags and Boxes 
and a great many flints. 

Returned by order 3 Firelocks to 3 different men in Tisbury 
Returned by do. 4 do. to 4 different men in Chilmark 
Returned by do. 2 do. to 2 different men in Old Town 

9 which are included in the above Return. 
DAVID SCOTT 

Capt. R. R. Artillery 

THE FLEET DEPARTS. 

But little more remains to be said. In the twilight of 
September 14, a quiet Monday evening, a rear guard of Grey's 
raiders marched down the slopes of Manter's Hill, and when 
the final boat-load pushed off the beach it was the last time 
that the soil of Massachusetts was pressed by the feet of 
British soldiers on a hostile errand. The tired and broken- 
spirited Vineyarders slept in peace that night. Morning came 
with the fleet still in the harbor, but the preparations for de- 
parture were going on. Andre makes the following entry in 
his journal : — ^4 

15th. The signal was made for sailing at 6 in the morning, but the 
transports were so dilatory that it was sunset before they came up with 
the Commodore. The whole sailed. A schooner and sloop taken in 
Holmes Hole Harbour were burnt. 

Across the sound on the Falmouth Heights the militia of 
Barnstable County were in arms, expecting an attack from 
this force, and Brigadier Joseph Otis, in command, thus writes 
of what he saw and learned of the movements of the enemy 
during their stay on the island : — 

382 



Grey's Raid 

The Enemys fleet began to sail Westward the morning of the 15 th 
to the number of Twenty Six Ships besides small craft: and by the morn- 
ing of the 1 6th ware out of sight of the High Land of Woods Hole. I 
sent a boat on the Vineard the Evening of the 15th, which returned the 

next morning they told the Inhabitants that they wanted to visit 

Falmouth but that we was as they term'd us a pack of dam'd Rebels and 
had five thousand strong with a plenty of artillery (though we never had 
at one time six hundred men with only one field piece) that the Rebels 
fought well at (New) Bedford and had given them a good Trimming: 
that they should have done more there but the Rebels were as thick as 
Bees. 

But the British General did not care to accommodate 
Brigadier Otis with a skirmish. He had accompHshed his 
object. The garrison at Newport could have beef and mutton 
for a while, thanks to his efforts. He had left behind only 
two Chops which he could not very well take with him. His 
fleet arrived at Whitestone, L. I., on their return, on the 17th 
and 1 8th, having been separated by bad weather, but suffering 
no loss. On the latter date he reported his return to Clinton, 
in which he expressed his obligation "to the commanding 
officers of corps and to the troops in general for the alacrity 
with which every service was performed." Thus terminated 
the expedition which is our principal Revolutionary heritage, 
as our contribution to the sacrifices made to gain liberty for 
the American people.* 

^Incidents of Grey's Raid connected with Farm Neck include the tale of two 
bachelor brothers, who, in their alarm at the foraging parties of "red-coats" fled with 
their money to the jimgles of Aquampache and buried it with such thoroughness that 
they were never afterwards able to locate it. And of that sturdy farmer, Ansel Norton, 
who defended his one pair of oxen with such zeal, that it took the pricks of several 
British bayonets to make him relinquish his team. At Major Norton's they even 
took a flock of geese, which had in fright and dismay at the strange proceedings, swam 
to the middle of the pond. Every goose was shot before a capture could be effected. 
(Information furnished by Mrs. Annie Daggett Lord and Henry Constant Norton.) 




RELICS OF THE RAID. 

BRITISH MILITARY BUTTONS (GRENADIERS, ARTII,I.ERY 
AND 44TH REGIMENT). 



3^3 



History of Martha's Vineyard 



CHAPTER XXV. 
The Long Campaign to Obtain Redress. 

1778 TO 1787. 

As soon as they recovered their former tranquility, after 
the exciting days of the "Raid," the officials of the Vineyard 
arranged for a conference to determine upon the course they 
should pursue. They met four days after the departure of 
the fleet, probably at West Tisbury, as the central location for 
all, and having exchanged views as to the best course to follow, 
it was deemed wisest to make a report to the provincial au- 
thorities and ask for their help. Accordingly, a committee 
composed of the selectmen of the three towns was formed to 
publish a formal statement of the events which had transpired 
during the preceding week. The situation was indeed a 
peculiar one, and embarrassing to all concerned. It was the 
logical result, however, of the neutrality imposed upon the 
island by the authorities. The following address was pre- 
pared to the General Court of the -State. 

To the Honourable the Council & House of Representatives in 
General Court assembled: 

We the selectmen of the several Tovms in Dukes County beg leave 
to lay before Your Honours the unhappy situation of the people of this 
Island, occasioned by our being deprived of the greatest part of our stock 
by the British troops: on the Tenth Inst came into Holmes Hole Har- 
bour about twenty sail of Vessels of which seven or eight were Frigates 
the rest armed vessels & Transports: a requisition was soon made of all 
our arms and military accoutrements, Horned Cattle (milch cows excepted) 
& sheep: & in said requisition were informed that in case we did not 
Immediately comply they would march their troops and collect them 
(they having about five thousand): the people not being able to defend 
themselves endeavoured to persuade them to lessen their demands & after 
much entreaty could obtain no other Terms than those that we should 
Immediately give up all our arms & military stores three hundred Bul- 
locks & Ten Thousand sheep and least this should not be complj'ed with 
they landed the greatest part of the Troops & marched them to different 
parts of the Island & declared in case there was any delay they would 
let the Troops loose and we must abide the consequences. The People 
seeing no alternative were obliged to comply & accordingly have delivered 
up all their arms & military accoutrements & stores, the greatest part 
of the oxen & sheep whereby our case is rendered very deplorable having 
neither sufficient beasts for draught or provisions for our support: they 

384 



The Long Campaign to Obtain Redress 

also obliged the Collector to deliver up all the money they had collected 
for the State. Many other evils we have suffered for a more particular 
account we would refer to Col' Norton & the other Gentlemen which will 
accompany him. 

Marthas Vineyard, September 19, 1778. 

Eben. Norton 
Benj. Smith 
Brotherton Daggett 

Selectmen of Edgartown 

Nathaniel Bassett 
James Allen, Jr. 
^Iatthew Tilton 

Selectmen of Chilmark 

James Athearn 
Shubael Cottle 

Selectmen of Tisbury.* 

This representation did not require any action, and none 
was taken by the General Court. The committee accom- 
panying Colonel Norton, probably composed of James Athearn 
and Thomas Cooke, men well known by the members of the 
General Court, gave their former colleagues a full account of 
the "Raid" verbally, the terms offered by the British, their 
promises of payment and the distress which had followed the 
stay of the troops. On the 26th, Norton and his associates 
addressed another petition to the Court, in which they defi- 
nitely asked for relief of the suffering. 

To the Council & House of Representatives of the State of Massa- 
chusetts Bay now sitting at Boston the remonstrance of the Sub- 
scribers Inhabitants of Marthas Vineyard: 
Humbly sheweth that the Distress of a number of the Inhabitants of that 
Island must be shocking to the Human Heart as the late step of the Brit- 
ish troops have made in Depriving them of their stock has rendered the 
case of many persons with large families Truly deplorable. In particu- 
lar near the Harbour of Holmes Hole where they landed who are not only 
Deprived of every article &i necessary of life not having an Exchange of 
any kind of clothing for them or children and unless immediately assisted 
must unavoidably suffer extremely or perish. 

Your petitioners therefore beg your Honours to consider thare Distress & 
grant them some relief or otherwise order as in your wisdom you shall 
see fit & as in duty bound shall ever pray. 

Boston 26 Sept. 1778.^ James Athearn 

Beriah Norton 
Tho: Cooke 

'Mass. Archives, CLXXXIV, 239. The third selectman of Tisbury was Abijah 
Athearn, but it is not known why he did not sign. He may have been absent or sick. 
^Ibid., CLXXXIV, 254. 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

The committee to whom this was referred, consisting of 
Colonels Fogg, Cutt, and Peck, reported a resolve to give a 
sum of money, not specified in amount, to the most urgent 
cases of suffering, but their report was ordered "to lie on the 
table." Naturally it would have been impossible to have re- 
lieved, by pecuniary aid, all cases of loss and suffering oc- 
casioned by the war, but this was a meritorious case, owing 
to the circumstances of their enforced neutral position, imposed 
on them by the state. On the same date as above, in the 
House of Representatives, "Samuel Niles Esq. brought down 
a petition of James Athearn and other Inhabitants of the 
Island of Marthas Vineyard, setting forth that they were de- 
prived of about 10,000 sheep and 300 Head of Cattle by the 
Enemy; that they were given to understand that upon appli- 
cation to General Clinton at New York it was probable they 
might receive Payment: therefore praying the Court to Grant 
a Flag for that Purpose."^ The committee of the house to 
whom the subject was referred reported a resolve desiring the 
president of the council to write to General Washington upon 
the subject. Thereupon, the same day, the following letter 
was addressed to the commander-in-chief : — 

State of Massachusetts Bay 
Council Chamber Sept. 26 1778 
Sir: 
This will be delivered to you by Colonel James Athearn of Marthas Vine- 
yard, who repairs to your encampment by Permission of the General 
Court of this State, as may more fully appear by the enclosed Petition and 
Resolve. The General Court takes the liberty to recommend him to 
your notice so far as to obtain a flag to go into New York, Provided you 
think yourself warranted so to do by the rules and orders of Congress. 
I am, sir, in behalf of the General Court, 

Your Excellency's Obedient Humble 

Servant, 
JEREMIAH POWELL 
Gen'l Washington. President. 

JAMES ATHEARN PERMITTED TO VISIT BRITISH GENERAL. 

At this time the American army was in New Jersey, the 
headquarters of Washington at Middlebrook, and Clinton 
was bottled up in New York, and besides Newport, this was 
the only place held by the British. Athearn undoubtedly had 

iMass. Archives, CLXXXIV, 248-250. 
386 



The Long Campaign to Obtain Redress 

to proceed by water to reach his destination. It does not 
appear what success he had, but from subsequent develop- 
ments it would seem that Washington did not care to grant the 
"flag" without the sanction of Congress, to which the entire 
matter was referred. 

Meanwhile the people at home were discussing what 
measures to pursue to secure repayment for their property, as 
promised. The inhabitants of Edgartown held a town meet- 
ing one month after the departure of the expedition, when 
they assembled at the Court House, and chose Beriah Norton 
as moderator. The following action was taken by the citizens : 

Voted: there shall be a Committee chosen to Inspect into the several 
Losses & Damages that the Inhabitants of said Town hath lately sus- 
tained By the Brittish forces. 

Voted: That the selectmen Together with Mr William Jernegan & 
Mr Seth Peas Be a Committee to Take a True Inventory S: Estimation 
of each Perticular Persons Loss & Damages sustained by the Brittish 
forces. 

Voted: That there shall be severall Counters chosen in Different 
Parts of said Town to Drive the sheep and Take a True inventory of 
what sheep still Remains in said Town and who they Belong to & make 
Return to the Committee abovesaid. 

Voted: That Joseph Huxford, Matt. Butler & Benj. Peas be a Com- 
mittee for Chapoquid'k & Capoage. 

Voted: (other committees for the different parts of the town). 

Voted: That the above mentioned Committees be Empowered to 
receive Donations of any of the Inhabitants of the Town for the Relief 
of such Persons as have suffered most and to make distribution as they 
shall think proper.' 

ESTiaiATES OF THE LOSSES. 

Edgartown went about this in a business-like manner. 
The other communities took no action at this time, as tow^ns, 
for their records do not contain any reference to meetings held 
for the purpose. Probably the individual losers held meetings 
and arranged to compile accounts of their losses. The com- 
mittees of Edgartown went to work promptly and by the end 
of the second week in October had schedules of their losses, in 
tabulated form, all ready for presentation to the British gen- 
eral. Fortunately these lists have been preserved, and they 
are herewith printed. They furnish a most interesting sum- 
mary of the extent of the depredation in this one town. The 
first table shows the list of "Sundry Articles" taken by the 
soldiers, and bears out the claims of personal .distress which 
some must have suffered after the "Raid." 

' Edgarto\vn Records, I, 315. 



An Account of Sundry Articles Taken by the British For<s 
Massachusetts Bay, Between the tenth and fifteenth Day of Sepl 
son's Name With the Just Value According to the Currant (Spe 





Bushels 


Bushels 


Heads 


Cloathing Swine 


Weight 


Fo 






drain 


Potatoes 


CaDbage 


£ s. d. 


No. Wt. 


Leather 


Lum 




Matthew Butler 










I 










Benj'n Pease Junr. 








19- 7-oi 










Joseph Huxford 




3 


36 


1 










William Vinson 














61 




Malatiah Pease Junr. 








10- 0-0 1 










Enoch Coffin Esqr. 


^H 


6 


60 


7- 2-0 












Thomas Butler 




80 


95 














Thomas Claghorn 


12 


40 


70 


20 












Joseph Smith 


25 


80 




12- 0-0 












David Coffin 


20 


15 






3 


300 








Elijah Butler Junr. 




50 


300 




2 


240 


35 






Widdow Davis 


23 


30 


70 




2 


60 




5' 




RamSford Smith 




18 
















Ebenezer Smith 


8 


20 




47-10-0 












Elijah Butler 


4 


















James Shaw 








5-10-0 








15 




Shoble Norton 




3 


25 














Malatiah Davis 


7 


55 






2 


100 


42 






Shoble Davis 


2 


40 




105- 0-0 


I 


35 


80 






John Davis 


2 


40 






2 


165 


80 






Benjamin Davis 


5 


55 










60 






Ansall Norton 




20 
















Seth Pease 
















101 




Jane Claghorn 


4 


12 
















Marshall Jenkins 


7 


3 












2 \ 




Samuel Killey 




8 


30 














Gamaliel Merchant 








6-10-0 








15' 




Cornelius Merchant 








14- 8-0 












Matthew Mayhew 


iy2 






9-12-0 








\Q.\ 






137 


590 


698 


,^238 

5s. od. 
r 


12 


900 


297 


54' 




Thomas Cooke 








17-2-0 








20 f 




John Holley 










I 


150 









The Foregoing Was Taken by us the Subscribers by the 





in Edgartown on the Island of Marthas Vineyard in the State of the 
[778 — Each Article carried of in Separate Colloms against Each Per- 


it 


s of this State) of What Each person has lost. 






1, 


bb 
Naval stores 


Bushels 
Salt 


Fishing 

Craft 
£ s. d. 


Provisions 

£ s d. 


Fencing 
£^.d. 


Howshold 
Goods 
£ s. d. 


Roots 
£ s. d. 


£ s. d. 








1-5-0 


3-13-0 








9- 0- 
24- 5- 

3- 6- 


6i 










3-15-0 






9- 10- 
10- 0- 
21- 7- 
















44- 15- 












14- 


II-17-6 




90- 9- 6 










3-12-0 


15- 0-0 


3-0-0 
19-15-O 


6- 0-0 


103- 12- 

67- 10- 

112- 15- 


c: 




5 




6- 0-0 
3-12-0 


15- 0-0 

6 


3-10-0 

6- 0-0 


9-12-0 


112- 12- 
15- 0- 

160- 2- 
13- 4- 


( 








6-12-0 
9-12-0 




7- 0-0 
2-10-0 


2-10-0 
2-10-0 


41- 17- 
12- 7- 
66- 18- 
163- 4- 6 
70- 9- 6 
63- 0- 
10- 0- 


( 












18- 0-0 




15- 0- 
31- 16- 


1 


16 


20 




456 
55 




3 
9 


9 


680- 17- 
78- 10- 


c 












3-12-0 




29- 00- 
18- 0- 










20-8-0 




6- 0-0 




41- 12- 




16 


25 


1-5-0 


574-9-0 


47- I-O 


88- 4-6 


25-12-0 


2069- 18-0 

47- 2- 


< 


23-8-4 














13- 10- 
2130-10-0 


I( 


[juest of the Proprietors the 14th Day of Octr. 1778. 






BENJAMIN SMITH ) 
BROTHERTON DAGGETT yCoi 


nmittee. 








w 


ILLIAM 


[ JERN] 


EGAN 


J 





History of Martha's Vineyard 

An examination of the foregoing schedule shows that the 
greatest individual loser was Marshall Jenkins, who charges up 
£456-0-0 for provisions, and the next largest was Shubael 
Davis, with an item of ;^io5-o-o for clothing, though we are 
at a loss to know what kind of clothing the army could want 
from the farmers of the island. Possibly it was destroyed. 
The total loss figures up to £2130, and if the other two towns 
suffered an equal amount in the like class of articles, we can 
estimate the total loss of property, exclusive of stock, at £5000 
at least, or an equivalent of about $100,000 in money as reck- 
oned at comparative values in our present money medium. 

The account of live stock taken from Edgartown, was 
scheduled by a committee, as already stated, and their report 
is given below : — 

An Account of Horned Cattle and their Weight, the Number of sheep 
and Tuns of Hay which was Taken by the British Fleet and Army 
from the Inhabitants of Edgartown on the Island of Marthas Vine- 
yard in Dukes County Between the Tenth Day and fifteenth of Sep- 
tember annoque Domini 1778 



MENS NAMES 


No. 
Catile 


Weight of 
Cattle 


No. 
Sheep 


Tuus of Hay 


Sum 
Totle 


Peter Norton 


7 


4400 


807 






Samuel Kingsbury 


2 


950 


15 






John Worth 


5 


2475 


75 






William Jernegan 


3 


1750 


160 






Thomas Vinson 


2 


1400 


37 






Joseph Vinson 


2 


950 


5 






Daniel Stuart 


I 


825 


16 






Thomas Stuart 


I 


775 


18 






Elisha Donham 


2 


800 


6 






Seth Davis 


2 


1775 


90 






Joseph Huxford 


2 


1200 


74 






Enoch Coffin 






108 






Benjamin Pease Juner 


1 


375 


49 






Matthew Butler 


I 


375 


46 






Zachariah Pease 






10 






William Vinson 






3 






Timothy Butler 


1 


300 


17 






Thomas Fish 






6 






Meletiah Pease Juner 


2 


1000 


6 






Marshall Jenkins 


lA- 


700 


77 






Elijah Stuart 


^ 


150 


6 




Peleg Grossman 


I 


400 


2 






Widow Marchant 






29 






Thomas Smith 


I 


525 


34 







390 



The Long Campaign to Obtain Redress 



MENS NAMES 


No. 
Cattle 


Weight of 
Cattle 


No. 
Sheep 


Tuns of Hay 


Sum 
Totle 


Benajah Donham 






18 






Thomas Butler 


2 


i6oo 


199 


3 




Widow Davis 


3 


1720 


41 


4 




Brotherton Daggett 


2 


1200 


18 






Isaac Norton 


4 


1900 


50 






Joseph Smith 






119 


h 




David Coffin 


3 


2260 


57 


2h 




Widow Smith 






14 






John Daggett 


I 


200 


6 






Widow Beetle 


2 


576 


14 






William Beetle 


I 


400 








Ebenezer Smith 






24 


1 
4 




Elijah Butler 


2 


1250 


95 


5 




Shubal Norton 


2 


1600 


75 






Isaac Norton Jr 


I 


300 


42 






Stephen Norton 






37 






Shubal Davis 


3 


970 


45 






John Davis 


3 


1850 


40 






Meletiah Davis 


2 


1400 


67 


1 




Benjamin Davis 


I 


520 


44 


3 

4 




Meletiah Davis of Tisbury 






75 






Ansell Norton 


3 


157s 


43 






Samuel Norton 


3 


255 








Ebenezer Norton 


3 


1025 








Beriah Norton 


2 


1200 


45 






Nathaniel Vinson 






7 






Daniel Coffin 






86 






Robert Norton 






14 






Thomas Cooke 






14 






Uriah Norton 






13 






Timothy Smith 






22 






Elijah Smith 


2 


1400 


45 






Samuel Smith 


2 


1 100 


40 






Samuel Smith Jr. 


I 


350 


109 






John Coffin 


2 


1700 


72 






Benjamin Coffin 


2 


1300 


no 






John Norton 


2 


1200 


58 






Peter Ripley Jr. 


2 


1400 








Peter Ripley 






22 






Micajah Covell 






10 






William Covell 






6 






Nathan Donham 






3 






Benjamin Daggett Jr. 


I 


450 


15 






Benjamin Daggett 


2 


850 


32 






Benjamin Pease 






115 






John Butler 


2 


750 


4 






John Pease 


I 


350 


14 







391 



History of Martha's Vineyard 



MENS NAMES 


No. 
Cattle 


Weight of 
Cattle 


No. 
Sheep 


Tuns of .Hay 


Sum 
Totle 


Bamibas Vinson 


I 


300 


4 






Nathaniel Fish 


I 


680 


5 






Thomas Arey 


2 


150 


82 






Abishai Merchant 


I 


490 


6 






Joseph Pease 






20 






Judah Norton 






12 






James Pease 






4 






Samuel Killey 






10 






Sylvanus Norton 


2 


650 


8 






Abraham Luce 


I 


450 








Elijah Butler Jr. 


2 


1050 








Benj'n Natick 


I 


316 








Benj'n Butler 








I 






112 


61007 


3828 


i7f 




Ezra Cleaveland 






5 






Ephraim Pease 






ID 






Harlock Smith 






8 






Mary Smith 






16 








112 


61007 


3867 


i7f 




William Norton 






22 






Jonathan Pease 






9 








389s 





The above is a True account according to the Best Information We 
have been able to procure 

Benjamin Smith "^ 
Eben. Norton >- Committee 

Edgartown, Oct. William Jernigan J 

the 14th 1778 

From the above schedule it will be seen that the largest 
loser was Peter Norton, who gave up seven cattle and about 
800 sheep, four times as many as any other owner in the list. 
The next one was Thomas Butler with 199 sheep. Edgartow^n 
furnished, probably, the largest individual loss of the three 
towns. The balance of the cattle and sheep to make up the 
total number was 203 of the former and 6679 of the latter, 
of which number 411 6 belonged to Chilmark and 2563 to Tis- 
bury. Unfortunately, their lists are not extant. Armed with 
these claims Beriah Norton pursued the plan of obtaining 
compensation for the owners, and urged Washington to lay 
the matter before Congress. This was done, and on October 



392 



The Long Campaign to Obtain Redress 

27, Congress passed the following authorization for him to 
proceed to New York : — 

Resolved: That major-general lord Stirling be, and he hereby is, 
directed to permit col. Beriah Norton of Marthas Vinegard in the state 
of Massachusetts-Bay to go into New York; and that a flag be furnished 
him for that purpose; and that he be permitted to return when he shall 
have concluded his business.' 



THE BRITISH COMMANDER REFUSES PAYMENT FOR CATTLE. 

Whether he went at that time is not known. Certain it 
is that the British officers entertained no such intention of 
paying for the stock as was held by our people. An authority 
on the subject gives us the direct evidence that the claim was 
distinctly repudiated by Clinton. At the time it was presented 
formally in writing, it was returned with the following en- 
dorsement : — 

The Commander in Chief knows of no arrangement between General 
Grey and the people of Marthas Vineyard in relation to the cattle as herein 
stated, and does not see fit to institute an inquiry into the matter at present. 

JOHN ANDRE Adjutant* 

The basis of the claim does not seem clearly established. 
It was a war measure, taken by properly constituted officers 
against the enemy, and such acts are a part of the fortunes of 
war. The Vineyard was a part of the rebellious colonies, 
had taken part in the struggle, and the British officers could 
not take cognizance of their non-combatant state, as it was a 
war measure of the Massachusetts government, not a peaceful 
condition, to save her strength for other hostile purposes. 
It seems to be a case where General Clinton was properly 
within his rights in denying responsibility. 

Tisbury did not, apparently, take any action about the 
losses of her townsmen until December following the "Raid," 
of which the following is a report of the meeting : — 

At A Town-meeting Leggally warn'd & held at the Courthouse in 
Tisbr on Wensday the Second Day of December A D. 1778 in Order to 
See if the Town will Vote that the Loss of Stock & hay Sustaind in this 
Town Shall be Everedg'd on the Oxen Cows and Sheep in Said Town 

'Journals of Congress, IV, 446. 

'"Porte Crayon" in Harper's Magazine, XXI, 442. This writer and artist made 
a \-isit to the island in 1859, and states that this reply was "among the County 
records," but the original paper is in the collection of manuscripts belonging to the 
late Richard L. Pease, now owned by his daughters. 

393 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

and Hay, 8z Likewise to Chuse a Committee to Examine and Collect an 
Account of what is Lost that the Same may be Adjusted Accordingly, 
And at Said Meeting Esqr Shobael Cottle was Chosen Moderator, and 
then it was Put to Vote to See whether Esqr James Athearn Esqr Shobal 
Cottle Cornelus Dunham Thomas Jones Samuell Look, Should be the 
Said Committee and the Vote passed in the affirmative And then Said 
Meeting was Adjorn'd to Wednesday the 30th of December Ensuing the 
Date above to be holden at the Courthouse in Sd Tisbuary at two of the 
Clock afternoon in Order to Reecieve the Report of the Above sd Com- 
mittee' 

SUFFERING OF THE PEOPLE. 

The winter of 1778 had now set in and the people of the 
Vineyard were approaching its hardships deprived of their 
usual stock of subsistence supplies. The crops had been 
destroyed, their cattle commandeered, and they were indeed 
in a pitiful condition. A storm in December, which wrecked 
the General Arnold in Plymouth Harbor^ also stranded a 
privateer loaded with provisions and this "ill wind" blew some 
good to the scantily-fed inhabitants. 

Not long after this devastating storm a British ship, 
loaded with rice, was ^Tecked on the west end of the Vineyard, 
and a good supply of this cereal was obtained for the hungry 
and impoverished people. This visitation of the English was 
a cause of sore distress to the inhabitants during the winter 
ensuing. To be sure their houses were left intact, and they 
had plenty of fuel. They managed to get a scanty supply 
from the mainland, by exchanging iron or bog ore, as it is 
called, which, by running the gauntlet of the British cruisers, 
was transported to Wareham to be smelted. At one time a 
boat loaded with this bog ore was captured, while crossing the 
sound, by a British cruiser; the men in the boat pleaded pov- 
erty, saying they were taking this ore to be smelted and cast 
into pots and kettles, as General Grey's army had taken about 
all there were on the island. So plausibly did they set forth 
their condition and so eloquently did they plead their cause, 
that the British commander was moved to compassion, ordered 
their release, and the boat and cargo being restored to them, 
they went on their way rejoicing. This very ore was smelted 
and cast into balls for Americans to pelt Englishmen with. 

The salt works having been destroyed, the people were 
compelled to resort to another way than by solar evaporation 
to obtain that article. They had large kettles cast in Wareham 
or Carver; these were set up on the shores of the sound, and 

'Tisbury Records, 227. 

394 



The Long Campaign to Obtain Redress 

salt manufactured by evaporating salt water through the means 
of large fires kept going under the kettles day and night; a 
plenty of pine fuel being near at hand and boys being enlisted 
in the service to supply it. 

The year 1779 gives but little contribution to the military 
annals of the Vineyard. The recovery from the exhaustive 
raid was slow and discouraging. Tisbury voted to send 
Shubael Cottle as her agent, on February S, to the General 
Court ". . . to Represent the case they are now in ... . Re- 
specting our Loss by the Kings Troops," and obtaining relief 
from taxation.^ On the same day the townsmen of Chilmark 
held a meeting, at which Jonathan Allen, James Allen, Na- 
thaniel Bassett, and Matthew Tilton were chosen "to be a 
Comity to send A Letter and the account of the Loss of Stock 
that we have sustained by the British Troops to the Gover- 
nour."^ 

A small raid occurred in April, probably from a passing 
ship of war. A party landed at Homes Hole on April 5 and 
"shot a few cattle, sheep and hogs, which they carried off, 
paying for two sheep only."^ 

In September following the British General Leonard sent 
a landing party on shore and took som.e stock and wood. 

FURTHER EFFORTS TO OBTAIN REDRESS FROM THE BRITISH. 

A year had passed by and the alleged promises of General 
Grey had not yet found fulfillment. Colonel Norton kept at 
his task. On November 16, he memorialized the General 
Court upon the subject as follows : — 

To the Honourable Council and House of Representatives in 
General Court assembled: 

The petition of Beriah Norton for and in behalf of himself and others 
of the Island of Marthas Vineyard, humbly sheweth: 

That whereas your petitioner received a flag from the Honored Coun- 
cil of this State the 6th day of December last to apply to New York to 
sollicit payment for the stock etc that General Grey took from the said 
inhabitants in September 1778, and William Mayhew Esq., also received 
a flag from said Council the 2nd instant to apply to New York to sollicit 
payment for stock and wood taken by General Leonard in September 
last, and the said Inhabitants having received very considerable encour- 
agement that by applying we may receive payment, provided v/e will take 
it in such articles as we may agree on, the prayer of your petitioners there- 

'Tisbury Records, 229. 

'Chilmark Records, 176 

'Extract from a letter, dated Falmouth, April 5 1778. 

395 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

fore is that he may be appointed as well to transact the business of the 
present year as that of the last year, and that he may be allowed to take 
some articles of merchandise in payment, provided that he cannot obtain 
cash, and that there may be a Committee appointed that your petitioners 
may have an opportunity to lay the circumstances of the above matter 
before them as they are very interesting to the inhabitants of the said 
Vineyard, and as in duty bound v/ill ever pray.^ 

On the 1 8th of the same month the General Court, after 
a favorable report from their committee, passed a resolve 
granting Norton and Mayhew "liberty of a flag to go to New 
York to collect payment for what the British troops have 
taken from the inhabitants of Marthas Vineyard, and that 
they have liberty to take their pay in merchandise if they can- 
not obtain it in money — they being subject to such instruc- 
tions as may be given them by this Court for the rule of their 
conduct."^ Their mission was unsuccessful. The commander- 
in-chief of the British forces was too much occupied with other 
important matters to think about paying for a few cattle taken 
by his troops from the "rebels." Norton was dismayed, but 
not discouraged. He was under bonds to the state, and had 
made a covenant with the owners of the stock to pay them the 
proceeds when obtained. He was living, in part, at their ex- 
pense, as they contributed to the cost of his services. He 
vainly endeavoured to induce Clinton to do justice by the 
farmers of the Vineyard, to save him and them a personal 
appeal to the ministers of the crown in London. Norton re- 
turned bootless. All he could get was advice from General 
Sterling to "apply to England." Early the next year, having 
found no further disposition on the part of the British authori- 
ties to do more than parley with him, Norton recommended 
to the people that he should go to England, and place the busi- 
ness directly before the home government. This seemed a 
"last resort," but the owners were becoming desperate, and 
were willing to take any step to force compliance with the 
promises of Grey. Colonel Norton thereupon petitioned the 
General Court for permission to go to England and lay the 
case before the Lords of the Treasury as he had been advised. 
The petition is printed, verbatim, as follows : — 

To the Honorable the Council and the Honorable the house of 
Representatives in General Court assembled: — 
The memorial of Beriah Norton humbly sheweth that in Consequence 
of Leave obtained from the hono'le Court in November 1779, your me- 
iMass. Archives, XCVII, 140-1. 
^Mass. Resolves, III, 131. 



The Long Campaign to Obtain Redress 

morialist proceeded to New York in order to Solisit Payment for the stock 
taken from Marthas Vineyard by General Grey in Sept. 1778, as well as 
for fuel &c taken from sd Island by George Leonard Esq'r in Sept & 
Oct 1779, the Latter of which your Memorialist settled in full and also 
Petition Sir henry Clinton for payment for the Stock taken by General 
Grey But s'd Clinton being on the Point of Embarking for the South- 
ward Did not think Proper to take up the matter at that time. 

Your Memorialist was then advised by Sir henrys Agetent General 
that if he was to apply to Great Brittian he may know doubt Receive 
Compensation for the stock taken by General Grey your Memorial't then 
applied to General Stearling for advice he Being the first in Command 
under General Grey who Informed him by way of advice that it was Best 
to apply to England & he sd Stearling would wright fully on the subject 
in my favor, that together with other incoregements and the Great 
Necessity of the People of Marthas Vineyard are in for some Relief in 
Consequences of so General a Plunder as the Loss of Ten Thousand 
head of sheep & 312 head of Cattle Indusis your Memorial't to make 
this most humble applycation to this honorable Court Earnestly Praying 
that your memmoriallist may have the Liberty of applying to Great Britain 
for the Purpose abovesaid to Prosead as a Passenger in some British 
or American Ship & that he may have the Previledge of takeing his Pay 
for sd Stock in Some articles of Merchandise Provided he cannot obtain 
the Cash and also Emport whatever Goods obtained in to this State in 
such a Manner as this honorable Court shall think most fit & Reasonable 
and as in Duty Bound shall Ever Pray. 

BERIAH NORTON 
Boston April 28th 1780. 

Your Memorial list also Prays that he may have Leave to Bring 
from Great Britain all such moneys as he may have orders for from any 
marchant in this state. 

BH NORTON.^ 

The request was a peculiar one, but a favorable answer 
was returned when, on May 3, a resolve was passed to the 
effect "that the prayer of the petitioner be so far granted that 
the petitioner Beriah Norton have leave to repair to Great 
Britain by the way of New York for the purpose in said 
petition mentioned under such orders, limitations and restric- 
tions as the honorable, the Major part of the council shall see 
proper."^ 

COLONEL BERMH NORTON GOES TO ENGLAND. 

Norton went to New York, and remained there some time 
before sailing. He received permission to reside there from 
Major General Patterson, but after some time of continuous 
conferences with the evasive Clinton, he concluded to embark 



'Mass. Resolves, III, 131. 
^Ibid., Ill, 252. 



397 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

for London, and try to settle the business there. A pass was 
issued to him for the trip by Lieutenant General Elliot, in 
August of that year, and he sailed thence on his strange mis- 
sion of making the enemy pay for property taken in a foraging 
expedition. He remained in England that year and all of the 
next. This time was spent in importuning the government 
officials for hearings, considerations, references, preferring 
petitions, and the employment of all such means to attract 
their interest and attention. It would be tedious reading to 
follow the ^'oluminous documentary history of his proceedings 
during this time. Suffice it to say, that he found the officials 
there no more ready to admit the soundness of his claim than 
were the military authorities on this side. In July, 1781, the 
king in council definitely refused to grant his petition for 
redress, but he hung on. Residence in London was attractive, 
and he was being "wined and dined" by Americans living 
there, and in turn he was reciprocating the courtesies. His 
private papers contain numerous evidences of the social side 
of his mission, in the form of invitations to dinners, balls, and 
entertainments.^ But a change in the commanding officers 
occurred in February, 1782, by which General Sir Guy Carle- 
ton succeeded Clinton, and as he was known as a man of 
courage and just in" his dealings, Norton obtained later in that 
year from the Lords of the Treasury, an order directing the 
new chief to investigate the whole affair and mete out strict 
justice. 

A BOARD OF INQUIRY APPROVES THE CLAIM. 

This change was a welcome one, and Norton returned 
home to pursue the matter, in the spring, having been absent 
from home about two years. Fortified by this authority he 
obtained a hearing from Carleton, who called a board of In- 
quiry in April, 1782. The board sat at General O'Hara's 
headquarters, heard the agent, examined his documents, took 
testimony, and finally reached the decision that the claim was 
meritorious, and that it should be paid. Thereupon Carleton 
approved the findings, and agreed to make divided payments, 

'The Beriah Norton Mss. in the Pease collection comprise most of the docu- 
ments quoted in this chapter. They disclose a phase of his mission that does not 
happily reflect on his patriotism or his methods. He was eager while in London 
and throughout the controversy to impress upon them that he did not approve the 
Revolution or take part in it, and claimed the Vineyarders were unwilling to rebel 
against their king. 



The Long Campaign to Obtain Redress 

with the understanding that the money received should be 
invested in New York in merchandise to supply the needs of 
the claimants. This was more than Norton could stand, and 
he insisted that he should have the claim paid without any 
conditions as to the way it should be spent. The money be- 
longed to others, and he could not buy merchandise for them 
in absence of any authority. Carleton drew a draft for the 
sum of ;^30oo sterling, in part payment, upon the Deputy 
Paymaster General of the Forces, "the greater part of which," 
said Norton, "he was enabled to bring off in specie, notwith- 
standing the positive instructions of Sir Guy Carleton, who 
required that he should invest the same in such articles as might 
be useful to the inhabitants of the island." The total award 
was about seven thousand pounds, but Carleton would not 
pay it in full at that time, at least to be carried away in funds. 
The Governor of the Commonwealth and the Council required 
Norton to make a report to them of his doings, which he did, 
and, as he states, "flatters himself that he has given them the 
fullest satisfaction to all their inquiries." Whereupon, on 
October 2, that year, he again sought authority from the General 
Court to repair to New York and pursue the matter with Gen- 
eral Carleton, as the only person who could attend to the 
business, and the early return of that officer to England was 
imminent. He asked this favor in behalf "of those honest 
subjects who are not within the protection of Government," 
and expresses a willingness to take payment in merchandise, 
if it cannot be obtained in specie. The Court passed the fol- 
lowing resolve on October 11: — 

Upon memorial of Beriah Norton, Resolved, — That Beriah Norton 
Esq. of the Island of Martha's Vineyard, be and he hereby is, permitted 
to go to New York in any vessel he shall think proper, for the reasons 
set forth in his memorial, and to return to this Commonwealth and bring 
with him to and for the sole use of the inhabitants of the said Island of 
Martha's Vineyard the sum of four thousand nine hundred and twenty 
three pounds sterling money of Great Britain in gold or silver coin, which 
remains due to the said inhabitants of Martha's Vineyard for cattle, sheep 
and forage taken from them by General Grey for the use of the British 
forces; or one third part of the said sum in goods, wares and merchandise.' 

Norton was required to give a bond in the sum of ten 
thousand pounds for the strict fulfillment of this arrangement, 
and enter his vessel with the goods at Dartmouth in this state, 
when he should obtain a settlement. 

'Mass. Resolves, V, 313. 

399 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

THE WAR ENDED. 

A year before this the last gun had boomed at Yorktown, 
and CornwalHs had capitulated to the victorious Washington. 
The end of the seven years' struggle was in sight. British 
ministries hung out against the inevitable for months, but the 
people of great Britain were tired of the war created by the 
stupidity of their ruler and his advisers, and peace was gradu- 
ally forced upon a stubborn king and a sullen ministry. 

While Norton was driving this arrangement through, 
other scenes were being enacted on a larger field in the drama 
of the Revolution. Peace envoys were in London trying to 
patch up an agreement satisfactory to both of the contestants, 
and the articles of the convention were all but settled, when 
Norton got his permission to go to New York. It is not known 
what action he took in this state of the situation, except that 
Carleton was no better prepared, and not as much so, as before, 
to settle the claim. The negotiations for peace furnished him 
with an excuse to defer present attention to the matter, a^^d on 
Nov. 30, 1782, the treaty was signed between the belligerents, 
represented by Franklin, a descendant of John Folger 'of 
the Vineyard, Adams, Jay, and Laurens, for the American 
"Rebels." 

COLONEL NORTON STICKS TO HIS MISSION. 

The confusion incident to the settlement of this great 
struggle acted as an efficient stop to the consideration of 
Norton's claim, but it was by no means surrendered. It is 
probable that he went to England in the late fall of 1784, 
after further correspondence and the submission of a memorial 
to the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury, where 
he "had the honour," as he states, "of making a personal 
representation to the Ministers & Secretarys," from whom he 
"received advice from time to time that the matter would be 
refer 'd for a final decision." He appealed to them again in 
1785, and sent a personal request to Mr. Pitt, soliciting his 
aid, in the same year. It was the same old story of delay and 
promises, and he dragged on for month after month in London, 
having the tedium relieved by social attentions from the Amer- 
ican exiles in that great metropolis. "At length," he writes, 
"finding he was not able to endure the expense of attending 
any longer, & that no Business of that sort would be taken up 

400 



The Long Campaign to Obtain Redress 

for several months, he left England in June (1787), after a 
constant attendance for more than two years."* 

His return empty handed was a bitter disappointment to 
the farmers of the Vineyard, some of whom had been contrib- 
uting to the expense of the Colonel's "seasons" in the British 
capital, and who were somewhat suspicious, by this time, 
that his long absences were junketing trips at their expense. 
But he kept hope alive in their breasts. 

THE GOVERNMENT REFUSES TO ENDORSE THE CLAIM. 

The United States having been formally organized after 
the war, the next move of Norton was to obtain the sponsor- 
ship of the new government in the prosecution of the claim. 
Accordingly, in September, 1787, he went to New York, where 
the seat of government then was, and addressed a new memo- 
rial to "the Honourable the Congress of the United States of 
America." In it he recites the main facts rehearsed in the 
foregoing narrative of his previous experiences in prosecuting 
the claim, and states that "knowing the Justice of his acct on 
the British Government & the Contract made with General 
Grey for payment cannot without very great reluctance give 
up the prosecution of so just an acct." He concludes by 
praying for their "wise consideration of his very hard and 
particular situation & Business & Grant him such assistance 
& advice to enable him to prosecute his abovesaid Business 
as in your great wisdom you shall think fit and right."* The 
matter was referred to John Jay, then secretary for foreign 
affairs, who was requested to express an opinion on the pro- 
priety of taking the action desired. That officer submitted 
the following brief in response to the request of Congress : — 

Office for Foreign Affairs, 25th Sept 1787 The Secretary of the United 
States for the Department of Foreign Affairs to whom was re- 
ferred a Memorial of Beriah Norton, dated the 15th September, 
instant, Reports — 

That the Memoriahst states in substance that in September 1778 at 
Marthas Vineyard, of which the Memorialist had the military command, 
he delivered a number of cattle and sheep to the British General Grey 
who promised that payment should be made for the value of them. 

That in October 1778 Congress permitted the Memorialist to go to 
New York to solicit Payment. That his account was allowed to be just 
and amounted to £,^^2^, but that he had never been able to obtain more 

'Archives of Continental Congress, Vol. VII., No 41, p. 134. 

401 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

than a partial Payment: vizt £3000, notwithstanding his application to 
the British Lords of the Treasury, Ministers &c: — He requests from 
Congress such Aid and Advice to enable him to prosecute the Business 
as they shall think fit and right. 

It appears to your Secretary that Marthas Vineyard being American 
ground the enemy had good Right, flagrante Bella, to take away all sheep 
and cattle they found there without paying anything for them. If how- 
ever from Motives of Policy they grafuUously (and not in the way of 
Capitulation or Convention with the American Government) promised 
payment, that promise being left in Statu quo by the Treaty, must be 
considered as having been made at a time and under the circumstances 
which exempt Britain from any responsibility to the United States for 
the Performance of it, and consequently it would not be proper for the 
United States to take any measures respecting it. 

If on the other hand, this Promise or Contract is to be considered 
as being of legal obligation and not merely honorary & gratuitous, then 
the Memorialist has his remedy at Law, and the Interference of Congress 
can at present be neither necessary nor proper. 

The sum in Demand is doubtless important to the Individuals inter- 
ested in it; but as national Interposition should be confined to objects 
which affect either the National Interest or the National Honor, your 
Secretary is of opinion it should not be extended to such concerns and 
affairs of Individuals as are unconnected with, and do not touch or affect 
the National rights. 

All which is submitted to the Wisdom of Congress. 

JOHN JAY.' 

COLONEL NORTON AGAIN IN ENGLAND. 

There is not much room for comment upon this lucid 
opinion of Jay, and while the secretary denied him this support, 
he extended to him his personal compliments and "good 
wishes" for the success of his mission. Armed with this con- 
solatory message, and letters of introduction from Admiral 
Robert Digby, R. N., he sailed to make his last assault upon 
the treasury of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, Ireland, 
and Scotland. But there were others besieging it with claims 
of better standing than his. A descendant of one of the ref- 
ugee loyalists thus describes the situation : — 

The Refugees from America, scared from their ruined homes, had 
taken flight across the Atlantic, and were pitching down upon England 
by sixes and sevens, like rooks upon a corn field, to see what grain they 
could pick up; but so numerous were the flocks becoming, that the cus- 
todians of the granaries in the old country had great difficulty in finding 
a few grains each for all the hungry mouths.* 

'Archives, Continental Congress, Vol. Ill, No. 81, p 163. 
^Diary and Letters of Thomas Hutchinson, II, 22. 

402 



The Long Campaign to Obtain Redress 

Further consideration of this long-standing claim and its 
results will not be required. This last mission was not suc- 
cesssful, and the Colonel was subjected to much unfavorable 
criticism by the Vineyard sufferers upon his failure to obtain 
payment for them. Charges of various sorts were bandied 
about as to the prosecution of the claim, but none were ever 
substantiated. The general belief entertained by the losers 
was that the Colonel was courted and entertained into an atti- 
tude of complaisance in the prosecution of his task by the high 
officials of the government, though with no profit to himself. 




SIGNATURE OF COLONEL BERIAH NORTON. 



403 



History of Martha's Vineyard 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

Naval History of the Vineyard in the Revolution. 

It is well known that the Revolutionary war was for the 
■ most part fought out on land, although there were events of 
the greatest interest which took place at sea, especially under 
the intrepid lead of Commodore John Paul Jones. Our navy 
was always of secondary importance during the struggle, but 
the three years preceding the siege of Yorktown witnessed a 
remarkable increase in the number and activities of our private 
armed vessels. In May, 1780, the United States had left only 
six war craft to bear their ensign aloft, and a year later half 
that number was captured or lost, leaving only the Deane, the 
Alliance, the Due de Lauzmi, and the General Washington in 
active service. In two of these Vineyard men formed part of 
the crew in the closing years of the struggle for American 
independence. ''It can be readily understood, therefore, that 
had it not been for our privateers the Stars and Stripes would 
have been, for all practical purposes, completely swept from 
the seas," says a historian of these vessels.^ "It was the 
astonishing development of this form of maritime warfare," 
he continues, ''that enable the struggling colonists to hold 
their own on the ocean. In the year 1780 two hundred and 
twenty-eight American privateers were commissioned, carrying 
in all three thousand four hunderd and twenty guns; in 1781 
there were four hundred and forty-nine, with about six thou- 
sand seven hundred and thirty-five guns; and in 1782 three 
hundred and twenty-three, mounting four thousand eight 
hundred and forty-five guns. It is very much to be regretted 
that many of the cruises and actions of these crafts have not 
been recorded." 

FIRST naval engagement OF WAR IN VINEYARD SOUND. 

What was probably the first naval skirmish of the Revo- 
lution took place at this time, and its leader and men were 
from this island, and the action occurred in one of our harbors, 
probably Homes Hole, as the party was under the command 
of Captain Nathan Smith. In a whaleboat, mounted with 

'Maclay, " History of American Privateers," 206-7. 
404 



Naval History of Vineyard in the Revolution 

three swivels, and a small crew of volunteers, in the month of 
April, he undertook the capture of the armed schooner Volante, 
a tender of the British cruiser Scarborough. Although there 
was great disparity in the vessels and crews, yet that did not 
daunt them, and after a struggle the enemy struck colors and 
the victorious Captain Smith brought his prize into safe har- 
bor.' It is generally stated that the first battle of the Revo- 
lution on the sea was between the British schooner Margaretta, 
an armed vessel, and a small sloop, manned with a volunteer 
force, off the coast of Maine, in June, 1775, but it will be seen 
that the encounter which Captain Smith led took place two 
months previously, and can be claimed as the first overt act 
against the enemy on the high seas during the Revolution. 
While our affair was not a great battle, yet all these engage- 
ments had their bearing on the results, and in point of priority 
the valor of our Vineyard men in this instance has never been 
recognized, because no one has ever presented their claims to 
this honor. ^ 

CAPTURE OF THE TRANSPORTS "HARRIOT" AND "BEDFORD." 

On March 7, 1776, another maritime engagement off our 
shores was reported by Colonel Beriah Norton to James Otis, 
President of the Council, on March 9, two days after the- 
event : — 

.... ther was Information in town that there was a transport ship 
at anchor near Nantucket sholes. I not being in town myself till the 
Afternoon when I found there was about 37 men gon of to Ingage the 
ship with a small sloop about 23 of our men ware those of the sea corst 
under Capt. Benj: Smith, the rest ware of the Militia, they Ingaged hur 
and after a smart scurmig the Capt of the ship Being shot three (times) 
they then struck to our Yanke sloop and are Brought in to the old town 
harbour. The Capt is in a fare way of recovery hur Cargo is about 100 
Charldron of Coll, 100 Butts of Porter, 30 hoges, Sower Crout, Puttators 
and Sundry outher artacals, the officers and sea men are ordered to had 
Quarters By the Sea Corst Capt under the care of Second Lieut James 

'Maclay, "History of American Privateers," 64; comp., Emmons, "Statistical 
History of U. S. Navy." 

^\nother affair of like character is said to have taken place shortly after. The 
" Falcon," a British sloop of war, had, under some pretence or necessity, seized one 
or more prizes from the people of Buzzards Bay. Inspired, probably, by the suc- 
cess at Lexington and Concord, the people of New Bedford and Dartmouth fitted 
out a vessel with which they attacked and cut out one of the "Falcon's" prizes, 
with fifteen prisoners, from a harbor in Martha's Vineyard. This is stated to have 
taken place on May 5, 1775, by the author. Rev. Edward E. Hale, but an examina- 
tion of the log of the " Falcon" on that date does not show any such movement on 
her part. [Narrative and Critical History of America, VI, 564.] 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

Shaw. I shall not Inlarg any further in this subject as I expect to Be at 
Court within 15 Days/ '■ 

This exploit was characteristic of the daring ventures of 
tlie men of our island, and others in like localities, brought 
up on the water, and used to its hardships and perils. The 
transport was a large ship, ''called the Harriot of about two 
hundred and fifty tons Burthen commanded by Weymes 
Orrock," while the vessel which engaged her was "a small 
sloop called the Liberty, ^^ a most appropriate name. Captain 
Benjamin Smith also made a formal report of the action to 
the Council, which is here reprinted : — 

Gentlemen 
I have only Time to Inform your honours That on the 7th Inst I with a 
Detachment of my Company with some Gentlemen of This Town in 
number all about fourty, with a small vessel engaged for the piupose 
Engaged and Tooke the ship Harriot Weymse Orrock master store ship 
from London and bound for Boston Laden with Cole Porter and potatos: 
and have seat the mate (the Capt being wounded in the engagement) 
with fourteen mariners by Lieut Shaw and have Directed him to deliver 
Them to the Honou'ble Counsel. I am to endeavour to secure the prop- 
erty by Citing the ship to the mane, which having Perfected shall give 
Immediate attendance for further Direction in the matter, and in the 
Interim Remain your Houn'rs most Obed't Humble Serv't 
Edgarto\vn, loth March, 1776' BENJAMIN SMITH 

On the 23d of March Captain Nathan Smith added to 
his list of exploits the capture of another English vessel. With 
a party made up of his seacoast-defence company and some 
volunteers of the militia, he attacked, captured, and brought 
into port the schooner Bedford, laden with provisions and 
other stores for the fleet and army.^ Thus the two Captains 
Smith were busy harassing the transports, supply vessels, 
and other boats of the enemy's fleet, intending to carry men 
and subsistence for the army cooped up in Boston, and ren- 
dering important service to the patriotic cause. In the fol- 
lowing month of April, young Cornelius Marchant of Edgar- 
town, then but fourteen years of age, began his long and peril- 
ous service in privateers. He shipped "on board the private 
armed sloop Independence mounting ten guns, James Magee 
Commander, which during her Cruise Captured three Prizes, 

'Mass. Archives, CXCI.V, 275. 

^bid., CXCIV, 281. He was allowed prize money in June following. 
^Mass. Archives, Council Records. He was allowed prize money for this capture 
on June 18 following. 

406 



Naval History of Vineyard in the Revolution 

one Transport Brig with a cargo for the British Army and two 
Schooners from Hahfax with a Cargo for West Indias, and 
got them save into Newbedford," as he states in his narrative, 
"after an absence of six or seven Weeks. "^ 



CAPTURE or TRANSPORTS 'ANNABELLA AND HOWE. 

About this time, early in June (1776), a naval action took 
place in which several Vineyard men fought, although the 
event occurred elsewhere, and it is worthy of record among 
our archives of personal services to be credited to the men of 
the island. "I well remember," said old Obed Norton of 
Tisbury, then in his ninetieth year, "that in the year 1776, 
the brig Defence commanded by Capt. Seth Harding, came 
into Holmes Hole Harbour, near where I then lived. I under- 
stood at that time that she was in the service of the United 
States. Several men belonging to Marthas Vineyard entered 

on board of her, and she sailed on a cruise Among the 

persons that went the cruise were Silas Daggett, Samuel Norris 
and one Cornelius Dunham."^ This was the Massachusetts 
cruiser Defence, and she sailed hence for Plymouth, and on 
the evening of June 17, she was entering Nantasket Roads, 
being attracted there by the sounds of heavy firing. A writer, 
describing the scenes which followed, thus tells the story of 
her exploit with two strongly armed transports of the British 
navy, the Annahella and the Howe : — 

About eleven o'clock the Defense boldly ran into the Roads, and get- 
ting between the two transports, within pistol shot distance, called upon 
the British to strike their colors. A voice from one of the troopships was 
heard, in reply, "Ay, Ay — -I'll strike," and a broadside was poured into 
the Defense. The Americans promptly responded, and after an hour 
of heavy firing the British called for quarter. The transports were found 
to have on board about two hundred regulars of the Seventy-first Regi- 
ment. Eighteen of the Englishmen had been killed in the action and a 
large number were wounded. On the part of the Americans not one was 
killed and only nine were injured.^ 

Some of the principal actions in local w^aters in which 
our islanders took part have already been referred to in the 
chronological story of the Revolution, but, as stated by the 

'Mass. Hist. Soc. Proceedings, 1900, Narrative of Cornelius Marchant. 

^Deposition of Obed Norton, 1838. Clerk's Office, Tisbury. 

^Maclay, "History of American Privateers," 67. "Among the British dead was 
Major Menzies, who had answered the summons to surrender with "Ay, ay — I'll 
strike." Among the wounded on the "Defense" was Cornelius Dunham of Tisbury. 

407 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

author just quoted, we have left only "meager and fragmen- 
tary" data of other services rendered by Vineyard sailors, and 
these will be detailed below with such elaboration as the limited 
amount of material warrants. The vessels in which they 
served will be listed alphabetically, and they are as follows : — 

Alliance. This vessel belonged to the naval forces. She left Boston 
January nth, 1779, with General Lafayette, bound for France, with a 
complement of English and French seamen, with a few American volun- 
teers. Mutiny was attempted, but failed, and the ship reached Brest in 
safety. She was placed under the orders of John Paul Jones., then com- 
manding the "Bon Homme Richard." Thomas Luce, of Tisbury, was 
one of the crew of the Alliance, and the tradition in his family is that he 
was with Jones in his famous battle when the "Serapis" was fought 
and captured. There is no record to this effect, but it is here recorded 
for what value tradition has in such matters. In June, 1779, Captain 
Jones assumed command of the Alliance and sailed for the United 
States. Luce was pensioned for service in this ship. Samuel Lambert 
of Tisbury also had service on this vessel and was a pensioner. 

A urora. Privateer. Captain David Porter, master. Timothy Chase 
served in this vessel in 1781. 

Bon Homme Richard. Naval service. Thomas Chase (222) of Tis- 
bury engaged in privateering during the war, was captured in 1777 and 
imprisoned in Mill Prison, Plymouth, for two years. He was released 
through an exchange of prisoners and went to France, where he joined 
Commodore Paul Jones* fleet as ship's carpenter. He was present during 
the famous battle, July, 1779, between the Bon Homme Richard and the 
"Serapis," and his descendants have some mementoes taken from the 
prize ship by the young sailor after the battle. 

Boston. Naval service. Captain Samuel Tucker, commanding. Ben- 
jamin Luce was one of the crew in 1779. She was a frigate of 24 guns. 

Cabot. Naval service. Captain Elisha Hinman, commanding. 
Noah Waldron served as Quartermaster, in 1776, for two years, and Obed 
Norton was one of the crew, at the same time. Both were from Tisbury. 

Deane. Naval service. Captain John Manly, commanding. She 
was a frigate of 32 guns. Ephraim Luce of Tisbury served on her in 
1782. She was driven into Martinique that year, blockaded there, and 
remained until the close of the war. 

Fairfield. Privateer. Captain William Nott, master. Cornelius 
Marchant of Edgartown was on her in 1776. She carried twelve guns. 

General Arnold. Privateer. Captain James Megee, master. The 
wreck of this vessel, with several Vineyard sailors, in December, 1778, 
will be narrated in detail. 

Hazard. Privateer Brig of 16 guns. Captain John F. Williams, 
master. She operated in the West Indies, capturing a brig of 18 guns 
and 16 swivels, manned with 100 men. The enemy lost 13 killed and 20 
wounded, while the "Hazard" lost but 3 killed and 5 wounded. She 
was in the unfortunate Penobscot expedition, in 1779, where she was 
burnt to prevent capture. John Marchant of Edgartown served in her 
in 1778 and 1779. 

Independence. Privateer of 10 guns. Captain James Megee, master. 
Cornelius Marchant of Edgartown^was in her crew in 1776. 

408 



Naval History of Vineyard in the Revolution 

Marlborough. Privateer ship. Captain George W. Babcock, mas- 
ter. In March, 1777, she "put into Edgartown harbour to obtain a Com- 
plement of Men and Officers." One of these was Cornelius Marchant, 
but no further names are known. She was one of the most successful 
privateers in the war, taking in all twenty-eight prizes. 

Mars. Privateer ship of 24 guns. Captain Thomas Truxtun, mas- 
ter. Ebenezer Luce of Tisbury was one of her crew in 1781, when she 
cruised in the British Channel, making a number of prizes, which were 
sent into Quiberon Bay, France. Truxtun was a naval officer, detailed 
for this duty. 

Providence. Privateer sloop. Master's name not known. She cap- 
tured a British ship, put a prize crew aboard, but the ship was retaken. 
Later the privateer recaptured the same vessel and brought her into port. 
In the crew were Barzillai, Tristram and Benjamin Luce, all of Tisbury. 

Ranger. Naval Service. Jeremiah Anthony, an Indian of Martha's 
Vineyard, was one of the crew of the Continental ship "Ranger," Capt. 
John Paul Jones, on her first cruise, sailing from the Piscataqua River, 
Nov. I, 1777, and must have been in the engagement with the "Blake." 

Rising Empire. Privateer Brigantine. Captain Richard Whellen, 
master. Valentine Chase, Zaccheus Chase, Abraham Chase, Abishai 
Luce, all of Tisbury, were members of her crew in 1776. 

Rover. Privateer sloop of 10 guns. Master's name not known. In 
her crew during the year 1779 was CorneHus Marchant, of Edgartown. 

Vengeance. This vessel formed one of the fleet at Penobscot and 
she was destroyed August 14th, 1779, to prevent capture by the British. 
Elijah Mayhew of Chilmark was of her crew. 

Warren. This ship belonged to the Massachusetts "navy," and was 
commanded by Captain John B. Hopkins. Rowland Luce of Tisbury 
served in her one year from June, 1776. She captured a ship, a brig, a 
schooner and transport of four guns, carrying one hundred soldiers, 
but later she was captured by the British frigate "Liverpool." 

LOSS OF THE "GENERAL ARNOLD." 

In the winter of 1778 an event occurred in the naval 
history of the war which closely affected the Vineyard, because 
a number of her sons were engaged in the enterprise. Among 
them was Cornelius Marchant, who wrote about it in his 
narrative of personal experiences during the war, and this 
portion of his relation will be used : — 

The fourth Cruise which I performed during the War of the Revolu- 
tion was in the Brig General Arnold of Boston mounting twenty Guns, 
James Magee Commander Manned by one hundred & five Men and 
Boys, fitted for a Cruise of six months. They left Boston Roads for Sea 
the 24th day of December 1778, on the same date in the afternoon the 
wind coming a head could not weather Cape Cod, nor yet reach Boston 
Harbour, so we put into Plymouth and came to anchor; the Gale con- 
tinuing to Increase the Brig dragged her Anchour and drifted on to Browns 
Shoal now so called, where she bilged, but on account of the Severity of 
the weather we could obtain no relief from the shore untill the twenty 

409 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

ninth when seventy four of the Crew had perrished, heaped one upon 
another in almost every form; after being landed nine more died. At 
this time the Narrator lost the extremities of both his feet, under the ex- 
treme disadvantages and privations whereof he has been suffering for 
many years.' 

The loss of the General Arnold was one of the most ap- 
paUing disasters in the maritime annals of the war. Out off a 
crew of over one hundred men and boys, over eighty perished 
in sight of land, owing to the severity of the weather. Besides 
young Marchant, who was a survivor, at least nine of her 
complement of men were from the Vineyard, and they all 
were lost. These were James Winslow, James Wimpenny, 
Asa Luce, Valentine Chase, Solomon, Sylvanus and Timothy 
Daggett, Lot Burgess, "and a son to David Norton's wife."^ 
They were all of Tisbury, and there may have been others 
from the other towns. It was a great blow to the American 
cause, of which this island felt its share. 

This same storm also caused another wreck, a privateer 
sloop on the east side of our island, in which seventeen men 
perished. It was a terrible storm, and among its effects was 
one which proved a merciful circumstance for the people who 
were deprived of their stock, provisions, and other means of 
support by the British. The gale blew from the northeast, 
and immense quantities of snow fell. After the storm had 
subsided, some one in wandering about the northeast end of 
the Lagoon pond discovered a large number of striped bass in 
a frozen condition, packed as close together in the ice and 
snow as sardines in a box. The news of this discovery soon 
spread, the people hastened to the spot from every direction. 
The fish were taken out with pitchforks and other implements, 
stacked up in large heaps all along the shore, and later 
were divided and taken by the people to their homes. As 
there was but little salt with which to cure them, they were 
packed away in the snow; and thus, for the winter, all were 
supplied with this one article of food, supplemented with eels, 
clams, and wild fowl, when the weather would admit of their 



taking them. 



PICAROONS. 



During the Revolution the islanders were, as a rule, 
treated as neutrals by the British cruising in these waters; 

'Mass. Hist. Soc. Proceedings, 1900. 

tisbury Church Records. Abraham Preble was her first husband. 

410 



Naval History of Vineyard in the Revolution 

but the people were kept in a constant state of agitation and 
alarm by the incursions of an enemy termed "Picaroons." 
These were tories principally, who, claiming to be belligerents 
and in the British service, were simply pirates, and cowardly 
ones at that, robbing friend and foe alike when opportunity 
presented. They usually came in large launches, though oc- 
casionally in whaleboats, manned by five or ten men and 
sometimes more. It is said that a tower was erected for the 
purpose of a watch-tower, near the residence of the late 
John Luce in Tisbury, and which was commonly known as 
"Daggett's folly." Several earthworks were constructed for 
defense against these marauders in case they should appear in 
force. Just north of the Sailor's Reading Room on the "Neck," 
in Vineyard Haven, are the remains of some of these forti- 
fications; and others larger, on the Sound side, about half a 
mile from the lighthouse, are still visible. 



MISCELLANEOUS INCIDENTS. 

Lemuel, son of Joseph and Abigail (Little) Jenkins, had 
several perilous adventures during the war. At one time he 
escaped with his vessel from a British squadron, after a close 
pursuit. At another time he was captured, with his vessel, 
by a British ship of war, near Charleston, S. C, whither he 
was carrying military stores, intended for the Southern army 
under command of General Greene. The captain of the ship 
of war took him on board of his own ship, and placed a prize 
master on board the captured vessel. Captain Jenkins, not 
being closely guarded, made his escape while lying off Charles- 
ton, by letting himself down by a rope from a port hole into a 
small boat alongside of the frigate. The tide flowing into the 
harbor, he suffered the boat to float in with the tide, in the 
wake of the stern of the ship, until he got some distance from 
it, unnoticed by the guard on deck. Then he sculled the 
boat up near the city, where he landed about daylight, and 
surrendered himself to a sentinel. He was taken before 
the American general, who, having heard his story, gave 
him a passport and some money to enable him to return to 
Massachusetts. This he did travelling the whole distance 
on foot.* 

'Vineyard Gazette, June 22, 18S8. 

411 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

THE LIBERTY POLE. 

Among the incidents of the Revolutionary war as it af- 
fected our island none is more characteristic than the exploit 
of the three young girls of Homes Hole, who preferred to 
destroy the "liberty pole" from which their flag of freedom 
was hoisted rather than have it become a spar of one of the 
king's ships. The story of it had been handed down from the 
sires to sons and daughters, in the traditions of the war, but 
the first appearance of it in print, as far as the author is aware, 
is to be found in a volume published half a century ago. As 
there given it is as follows : — 

Some time in the year '76, the British sloop-of-war, Unicorn, put into 
Holme's Hole, on the island of Marthas Vineyard, and having landed a 
detachment of marines, pressed into service a number of pilots. Upon 
this island, a liberty-tree had been erected, around which the citizens 
were wont to assemble, and pledge their fortunes and their sacred honors 
in the cause of liberty. Now his Majesty's ship was in want of a new spar, 
and as the only stick of timber on the island that would answer for the 
purpose, was the liberty-tree, down it must come. The panic stricken 
citizens consented to sell it to them, and on the morrow it was to be deliv- 
ered on board. But there was a numerous party who did not agree to 
this contract, and resolved to prevent its execution. Three young girls, 
named Parnell Manter' Maria Allen, and Mary Hillman, whose young 
eyes had not yet beheld the frosts of sixteen winters, met together on that 
evening around the sacred tree, and by means of augurs, pierced it with 
numerous holes, which they filled with gunpowder; they then cautiously 
applied the match and their emblem of liberty was shattered in many 
pieces.^ 

This version of the story seems to have in it some of the 
elem.ents of all traditionary tales, much that is improbable and 
fanciful, but there is in it the basis of the simple adventure 
of those patriotic maidens in their night task of preventing 
the desecration of the "liberty pole," which had been dedi- 
cated to the cause of American freedom. In the first place, 
as to the pole itself, the location of it is said to have been in 
the present village of Vineyard Haven, on Manter's Hill, 
not far from the spot where now stands the flag-staff erected 
as a memorial of the event under consideration. It is some- 
what absurd to suppose that it was "the only stick of timber 
on the island that would answer for the purpose" of repairing 

'Bunce, "Romance of the Revolution" (New York, 1853), p. 365. The names 
of the heroines are curiously misspelled, which error is corrected in the copy. Horiah 
Allen and Marv Milman would not be recognized bv their descendants or friends. 



412 



Naval History of Vineyard in the Revolution 

or replacing a spar, as the island was then heavily wooded. 
If there is any basis for this idea, it may be in the fact that 
the pole was chosen because it was used as a *' liberty-pole," 
and the British officers wished to make their needs an excuse 
for claiming it, under the law, for one of the king's masts, 
and so irritate the people here. The story quoted above 
assigns the occurrence to the year 1776, and gives the name of 
the ship as the Unicorn. The author of this history had the 
log-book of this vessel, now preserved in the Admiralty office, 
London, examined for the purpose of verifying the incident, 
if possible, and it was found that the Unicorn was not in 
Homes Hole harbor during that year. She was, however, 
here in the year 1778, as will be described shortly, and if the 
name of the ship is correctly given, the incident took place in 
the latter year. It also appears from the published account 
that the ship impressed a number of pilots, but this incident 
does not have any confirmation in contemporary documents 
which will fit the log of the Unicorn. In February, 1778, a 
committee of the General Court considered what was proper 
to be done **for the Release of those persons taken by the 
Enemy from Marthas Vineyard to pilot their Transports to 
the Harbour of Boston." This date does not fit the conditions 
of the appearance of the Unicorn at Martha's Vineyard, al- 
though the piloting incident has a circumstantial flavor. The 
charges against the selectmen of Tisbury of a craven attitude 
is not borne out by what we know of the patriotic spirit always 
exhibited by the leading men of Tisbury, and their usual 
leadership in all concerted measures for the cause of American 
liberty. In 1776 the selectmen were Shubael Cottle, Stephen 
Luce, and Joseph Allen; in 1778, the two latter were re- 
placed by James Athearn and Abijah Athearn, all men of 
approved courage and patriotism, who had borne the standard 
of Revolution from its incipiency without flinching in the face 
of the enemy, as we have already seen, when the king's ships 
came to demand aid of them. It looks like an effort to add 
a touch of detraction to the men for the purpose of increasing 
the glory of the girls. Their act needs no such contrasting 
color to bring out the spirit of the young rebels into better 
light. 

On April 19, 1778, his majesty's ship Unicorn sailed up 
the Sound and, according to the log, signed by Captain John 
Ford, commander, "Moored in Holmes Hole." Her business 
was convoying some transports and making some repairs to 

413 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

her foretopmast. The log continues: "Struck & unrigged 
the Foretopmast to fit new Crosstrees (that was sprung) 
rigged it again and swayed it up and set up the lower fore- 
topmast Rigging fore and aft." This is the only reference 
which bears upon the subject in her log, and granting the 
name of the vessel be correct, it offers us but a slight con- 
firmation of the incident. It may have been that such an 
incident would not be entered in the log, where the ship was 
defeated in an effort to obtain a new spar by the cunning of 
some patriotic girls, and that is a reasonable conclusion. 
This does not in the least discredit the main story. 

Of the three actresses a few words may be said to identify 
them for posterity. Maria Allen was daughter of Ebenezer 
and Sarah (Chase) Allen of Homes Hole. She was born 
about 1758, and married Nov. 13, 1788, David Smith, as his 
second wife. She died March i, 1820, "in the 62nd year of 
her age," and lies buried in the cemetery in rear of Associa- 
tion Hall, Vineyard Haven. Of her two daughters, Jane 
born Oct. 4, 1789, married Timothy Luce, Junior, of Tisbury, 
May 5, 1 816; and Hannah, born February, 1791, was never 
married. 

Mary Hillman was born Mary (Polly) Daggett, daughter 
of Seth Daggett, housewright of Tisbury, and she married 
May 13, 177% Peleg Hillman, who had been a soldier in the 
seacoast-defence establishment, under Captain Benjamin 
Smith. She lived to a great age, and during the latter part of 
her life is said to have received a pension. 

Parnell Manter was the daughter of Jonathan and Sarah 
(Chase) Manter, and their eldest child, born Sept. 5, 1757, 
in Tisbury. She died July 19, 1778, aged twenty-one years, 
unmarried, and lies buried in the Crossways cemetery. Vine- 
yard Haven. 

MARTYRS IN PRISON SHIPS AND PRISONS. 

There are no available lists of our soldiers who suffered 
captivity during the war, either in the prisons maintained on 
shore, or on shipboard in this country, or who were trans- 
ported to the established military prisons in England. Frag- 
mentary reference in scattered and unofficial records, family 
tradition, and a few direct documentary evidences, make up 
our sources of information about the many who died or 
suffered living deaths in the pestilential prison ships and the 

414 



Naval History of Vineyard in the Revolution 

insanitary confinement in the Mill Prison, Plymouth, England, 
but the infamous prison ship "Jersey" claimed the greatest 
number of victims of all the devices maintained by the King 
to punish and discourage his rebellious subjects. Its history 
is a disgraceful chapter in the conduct of the war, but the 
ethics of warfare at that time rested on almost savage stand- 
ards. 

Those known to have died as prisoners of war, or as a 
result of captivity after release are: Anthony Allen "in prison 
in New York," June 29, 1777;^ E lea zer Allen, August 29, 1782, 
in H. M. S. "Royal George" at Spithead;' William Allen, 
"returning from captivity," 1781;^ Henry Butler, "in a prison 
ship," 1781;^ John Butler, "returning from captivity," 1781;* 
Elverton Crowell, "in Captivity," February, 1778;^ Simeon 
Coffin, "in a prison ship," 1781;^ Joseph Dias, "in the Prison 
ship Jersey," 1781;^ William Harding, in Mill Prison, Ply- 
mouth, May, 1779;^ Eliphalet Leach, "in captivity," January, 
1778;^ Aaron Luce, "in captivity," 1778;' Jeremiah Luce, 
"in captivity in England," 1781;^ Andrew Newcomb, "re- 
turning fom captivity," 1781;^ Edmond Purcell, "returning 
from captivity," 1781;^ John Pope, "returning from captivity," 
1781; Benjamin Smith, "in captivity," 1778;^ and Ebenezer 
Shaw, "in a prison ship," 1781.^ 

Other casualties recorded are the deaths of Augustus 
Allen, William Draper and Thomas Gardiner, all of Tisbury, 
"in the army" in 1777.^ 

Those who suffered imprisonment, but survived were : 
Barzillai Crowell, Mill Prison, Plymouth,^ i779) and ship 
"Jersey";^ Seth Cleveland, Eorton Prison, 1778;*^ Samuel 
Daggett, ship "Jersey";^ Samuel Huxford, "on a prison 
ship";^ Samuel Lambert, Mill Prison, Plymouth, 1777, where 
he lost the sight of his right eye from small pox;* Thomas 
Luce, Mill Prison, Plymouth, 1779,^ and Elijah Luce, Eorton 
Prison, 1778.'^ 

'Tisbury Church Records. 

^Grave Stone Inscription. 

^Tradition. 

^Thaxter's Obituary Record. 

^Dukes Co. Probate, VI, 230-2. 

«N. E Hist. Gen. Register, XXXIII, 38. 

'Daggett Genealogy. 

^Journal of .Samuel Cutler (Register XXXII, 207). 



415 



History of Martha's Vineyard 



CHAPTER XXVII. 
MiLiT.^RY History, i 800-1 900. 

THE WAR OF l8l2. 

The war which was declared against England on June 18, 
181 2, and which was terminated by the Treaty of Ghent on 
Dec. 14, 1814, had its theatre remote from New England, 
and was -scarcely felt by the Vineyard, save in the privations 
occasioned by the interruption of business and the scarcity of 
foreign commodities. Most of the people on the island, as 
was a majority of the state, were decidedly opposed to the 
war and the measures of the administration, and at its close 
did not believe any advantage had been gained. The citizens 
of this country were then divided into two great parties in 
politics, which denominated each other the French or English 
party, and accused each other of undue partiality towards 
those nations respectively. These lines had been drawn for 
twenty years past, with increasing tensity, and the people of 
this section of the country were partisans of the Federal party, 
as represented by the opposition to President Jefferson. Eng- 
land and France were then at war, and in their struggle they 
paid little or no regard to the rights of neutrals. Both belliger- 
ents made prize of American vessels without ceremony or ex- 
planation. In the case of England, however, she claimed a 
right to search American vessels to recover sailors of British 
birth, in time of war, because of her right to their services on 
such occasions. This was done with such evident unfairness, 
distinctions not being made between Americans and English- 
men, that by 181 2, over six thousand cases of impressment 
were registered at Washington, while Lord Castlereagh, in a 
speech before Parliament, admitted half that number as prob- 
able erroneous detentions. Vessels were left in mid-ocean, 
stripped of their crews, and left to the dangers of the deep 
with half their force gone. England alleged that British sub- 
jects purchased certificates of protection belonging to Ameri- 
can sailors, adopted their names in order to escape military 
duty, and despite vigorous protests, continued in this course, 
until an exasperated nation had but one recourse to obtain 
redress. Among the other grievances held against Great 

416 



Military History, 1800-1900 

Britain were the obnoxious laws relative to trade and commerce^ 
by which she was endeavoring to drive the American mer- 
chant marine from the seas. Failing not only to secure any 
modifications of these acts, but met with harsher orders from 
the king's ministers at each additional representation upon the 
subject, President Jefferson forced through his celebrated 
Embargo Law in December, 1807, which fell like a doom upon 
New England industries, and caused universal opposition 
hereabouts. Being dependent upon the sea and the industries 
allied to it, the people of the Vineyard and New England felt 
this measure as no other part of the country did. Jefferson 
delayed the rupture with temporary measures until the end of 
his term, and it was left to Madison to declare war against 
our ancient enemy. 

The townsmen of Tisbury promptly assembled in town 
meeting to discuss the situation, and it is significant that no 
resolutions were passed to sustain the government in the crisis. 
They voted not to appoint a watch and 

then it was Voted the following persons Should be a Committee of 
Safty for Sd Town to act in behalf of Said Town as Circumstances and 
necessaty requires for the benefit & Security thereof the persons chosen 
were William Daggett William Down's Lot Luce Jeremiah Manter Ed- 
mund Cottle Jabez Smith Peter Norton Francis Norton John Cottle to 
act for the Safety of Sd town.' 

This action was taken on July 12, 181 2, and four days later 
Edgartown's citizens met in town meeting to consider the 
situation from their point of view. The following is a trans- 
script of their proceedings on that occasion, in which it will 
be seen that there is also a lack of enthusiastic response to 
the call to arms : — 

Whereas war exists between the United States and Great Britain, and 
considering the defenceless situation of this place this meeting was for 
the purpose of choosing a committee of nine to negotiate conciliatory 
terms with the enemy who should land at this place. 

Voled Daniel Coffin, Wm Butler Esq, Elijah Stewart, Ebenezer Jones, 
Melatiah Davis, George Marchant, Jethro Daggett, Martin Pease, Timothy 
Coffin a Committee of Safety. 

The following were a Committee of five to draw up instructions for 
the above committee to act upon: James Coffin, Wm. Mayhew Esq., 
Wm. Jernegan jr Esq., Thomas Cooke jr., Peter Pease jr., the above 
instructions to be laid before the town for the town's inspection at the 
adjournment. 

Met July 15th and the following report and resolves were read: — 

*Tisbury[^Records,^362. 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

Your Committee appointed to take into consideration the exposed, 
alarming and dangerous situation and circumstances under which this 
town is placed in consequence of the war lately declared by the Govern- 
ment of the United States against the Kingdom of Great Britain and her 
dependencies and to advise upon and recommend such Constitutional 
ways and measures for the safety and preservation of said town as shall be 
thought most desirable, have attended that service and after due con- 
sideration, beg leave to report : — 

ist Resolved that we lament the calamity of war and that our safety 
under God depends on our prudence, and whereas this County has been 
exempted from Militia duty by the General Court of this Commonwealth 
ever since the Revolutionary war, that being thus situated it is our wish 
to take a pacific position. 

2d Resolved that the Committee chosen to act for the general safety 
of said town be instructed to meet any hostile party who may attempt 
the invasion of said town and act as they shall think best for the preserv- 
ing thereof, and should there be any requisition made then take the sense 
of the town if circumstances will admit. 

3d Resolved that any three or more of said committee shall be com- 
petent to act on any sudden emergency until a Coroum of the whole can 
be convened. 

4 Resolved that the said Committee have power and it shall be their 
duty as occasion may require to confer with any Committee that may be 
appointed for similar purposes by the other towns in this County and to 
concur with them in any matter or measure calculated for the safety of 
this island in general. 

After reading the town voted that they fully approbated and accepted 
the report of the Committee.' 

It is not known that any committees were appointed in 
the other towns, and probably nothing came of this proposi- 
tion. This attitude was not far from "non-resistance," and 
little separated from unpatriotic neutrality. Indeed, that was 
the situation generally along the seaboard. One town on the 
mainland actually voted to notify any British cruisers, who 
might enter its harbor, that they were neutral and did not 
approve of the war. On Nov. 30, 181 2, Tisbury held another 
town meeting, and passed the following votes : — 

I St to petition the Legislature of the United States to prohibit the 
Exportation of Corn and flour during the presant Scarsaty 

2nd to petition the Said Legislature that the Nonimportation Act 
may be rigidly & strictly Enforced against England to prevent Silver & 
cold from going out of the United States and particularly out of the Town" 

This was the most serious circumstance of* the war for the 
people of the Vineyard. In the next year commerce between 

'Edgartown Records, II, i88. 
'Tisbury Records, 364. 

418 



Military History, 1800-1900 

the states had become so interrupted that the prices of sub- 
sistence became prohibitive. Sugar sold for forty cents per 
pound; tea at four dollars a pound; coffee doubled in price; 
salt brought five dollars a bushel, and other things in like 
proportion. It caused much actual suffering when such things 
as flour bore the price of eighteen dollars a barrel, and corn 
vi^ent as high as two dollars and fifty cents a bushel.^ For 
seven years the commerce of New England had been tied up 
by the "embargo" and it had proven worse than useless as 
an act of retaliation. ''It had probably saved some of our 
sailors from the press-gangs," said one writer, "but it had sent 
them to the poor-houses instead. It had ruined many of our 
merchants, and had benumbed the seafaring instincts of the 
people."^ The cost of it to the nation would have built a 
magnificent fleet of battleships of the line, and we could have 
waged a brilliant and effective naval war, but when the de- 
claration was promulgated in June, 1812, there were but 
seventeen vessels in the navy, frigates and sloops combined, 
not one of which was of first-class power, carrying four hun- 
dred forty-two guns, manned by five thousand trained men, 
Against this, England had one thousand and forty-eight ves- 
sels of war, mounting twenty-seven thousand eight hundred 
guns, manned by nearly one hundred and fifty thousand men. 
It was David and Goliath on the ocean. In this predicament 
our merchants hastened to repeat their marvelous achieve- 
ments on the seas in the struggle for independence, but there 
was not an American privateer in existence when hostilities 
broke out. It now became the opportunity for them to retali- 
ate, and they did it with speed and precision. Within sixty 
days after the declaration, one hundred and fifty of them, con- 
verted out of every available pilot boat, merchant craft, coasting 
vessel, and fishing smack, were harrying British commerce on 
the North Atlantic, commissioned "to burn, sink, and destroy."^ 
These venturesome craft upheld the honor of American sea- 
manship while the vessels of the navy were being held in port, 
under orders from the government, on account of their in- 
ferior numbers. The history of the war of 181 2 is a story 
which sheds equal glory upon the merchant privateers, and 

'Deane, "History of Scituate," 141; Marvin, "The American Merchant Marine," 
127. In June, 1813, the British people were paying famine prices for the same articles, 
— flour at $58 per barrel, and other staple articles in the same proportion. 

^Marvin, "The American Merchant Marine," 123. 

^Maclay, "History of American Privateers," 225-6. 

419 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

the navy after the latter had got into condition. During the 
war there were 517 of these private armed ships, mouniing 
2893 guns, while the navy had but 23 vessels of all classes, 
mounting 556 guns. The men-of-war captured 254 merchant 
ships of the enemy, valued at $6,600,000 (estimated), while 
the privateers took no fewer than 1300 prizes, the money value 
of which was estimated at $39,000,000. In this terrible attack 
upon England's ''pocket nerve," our great merchant marine 
proved six times as potent as our little navy.^ This feature of 
the war was peculiar to that struggle, and the history of it is 
lodged in the private records of the old mercantile houses of 
the New England seaports, rather than in the archives of the 
nation, as is the case with the Revolutionary war. The land 
fighting occurred in the remotest parts of the country, except 
one short and disgraceful campaign around Washington, and 
New England furnished few of the troops for any of the forces 
sent against the enemy. Except upon the sea, the story of 
this war is not creditable to American military annals. Massa- 
chusetts had refused to put the militia at the service of the 
general government, and in turn the government had declined 
to reimburse Massachusetts for her outlay in defensive opera- 
tions; but the people gradually recognized that it must be 
fought out, and slowly yielded their prejudices against the 
party in power and, at least, gave no aid to the enemy, as 
they were at first inclined to do. Holding these sentiments, 
the commercial spirit prevailed among some classes of mer- 
chants who engaged in the profitable and illicit trade of carry- 
ing supplies of bread-stuffs to the British armies in Spain 
engaged in the Peninsular campaign against the French. The 
high prices for such supplies tempted many of our merchants 
not only to run the risk of capture and confiscation, but to 
brave the odium of their neighbors and countrymen. Eng- 
land even licensed such vessels for that particular purpose, 
guaranteeing them from seizure by British cruisers. This 
kind of traffic in supplies that were so dear at home, as well as 
scarce, aroused great indignation among all classes. Our 
courts declared them denaturalized by the acceptance of 
licenses from the enemy. This condition of affairs galled 
forth protests from communities who were suffering from the 
famine prices of food. On May 13, 181 3, the voters of Tis- 
bury held a meeting and addressed the following petition to 
Congress on the subject : — 

'Marvin, "American Merchant Marine," 128. 
420 



Military History, 1800-1900 

To the Honourable the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States in Congress Assembled 

Your Memorialist and petistioners Inhabitants of the town of Tisbury 
and County of Dukes County State of Massachusetts In legal town meet- 
ing assembled beg leave to state that your petitioners in consequence of 
the War with Great Britain are many of them destitute of employment 
by being deprived of their real Occupations and the present high price 
of bread considerably adds to their embarrasment while your petitioners 
are dayly obliged to give nearly double the Usual price of bread they see 
with infeighed Sorrow Vessels dayly carrying Bread stuff (under British 
Linners) out of the United States to the ports & Countries under the 
controul of the British Nation & their Armies In return we see the Manu- 
factures of Great Britian filling our ports & Towns thereby aiding our 
enemies as well as drawing out precious Metails (now so much wanted 
in our Country, We the Inhabitants of Tisbury do petition the Legislator 
of our nation that the Exportation of Bread Stuffs may be prohibited dur- 
ing the present Scarsity and in imitation of our Forefathers of the Revo- 
lution do request that the Nonimportation Law may be strictly and rigidly 
enforced against Great Britain which will we believe alleviate many of 
our Citizens in the price of Bread and find Employment for our own 
Manufacturing Citizen to the Exclusion of the Manufactures of Enemies, 
and will also keep the Specia In our Country your Memmorialists beg 
leave further to Remark that no Nation (to our Knowledge) even become 
a great maratime power Untill they could manufacture for themselves 
no nation that ever admited British goods to be Imported amongst them 
without some restriction but what Experienced a decline In their own 
Manufactories a scarcity of specia frequently a dismemberment of their 
Empire Wherefore your Memmoralist & petitioners for the reason before 
mentioned do request that the above petition if consistant with the national 
welfare may be carried into Effect/ 

There were no naval combats or operations of privateers 
in or about our harbors during the war that are of record. It 
v^as a time of stagnation in everything — business and de- 
velopment. The whaling industry was badly affected, as else- 
where shown, and it is probable that few ships were laid up 
at the wharves, owing to the risk of capture in the exposed 
position of the island. Occasionally, privateers and vessels 
of our navy would run in Homes Hole for a harbor. On 
Mar. 19, 1 81 3, the sloop-of-war Hornet^ commanded by 
Master-Commandant James Lawrence, came to anchor in 
this harbor, on her return from her victory over the Peacock, 
and it is probable that frequent visits of this sort w^re made 
during the three years of the war." 

'Tisbury Town Records, 367. 

''It is told that Captain Lawrence was a guest at the Ebenezer Smith house in 
Eastville, on November 25th, 1814, when a son was bom to Ebenezer and his wife 
Mary (Hulsart) Smith. This son was named James Lawrence Smith in honor of the 
famous guest, who as an acknowledgment of the courtesy cut otT some of the gold 
buttons of his imiform and presented them to the mother as a souvenir of the event. 

421 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

As the war dragged on, the Embargo laws operated with 
increasing severity upon the mercantile and manufacturing 
communities, and there was a cry for relief from many of 
them. The voters of Tisbury called a town meeting for 
Feb. 14, 1814, ''for the purpose of petitioning to Congress to 
have (the) Imbargo Law mxolified so far as it respects this 
Island," and Peter West, Thomas Dunham, and Seth Dag- 
gett were appointed a committee to draw up the petition. 
This they did, and after directing that it be sent to the repre- 
sentative for the district, and appointing a committee **to 
Treat with the other Tovv^n in this County," they adjourned. 
The following is the text of the petition adopted : — 

To the Honourable the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States In Congress Assembled We the memorialists petitioners 
Inhabitants of the Town of Tisbury County of Dukes County and Com- 
monwealth of Massachusetts on the Island of Marthas Vinyard aforesaid 
are In Consequence of the Embargo Law Restricted to the Vineyard 
Sound Bays and Creeks their adjoining In consequence of which our Oil 
Salt wool and Other domestic Articles and Manufactures are cut off from 
their usual markit of New York & Connecticut their being no markit 
within our limmitts In Consequence of which wee your petitioners are 
Deprived of the Necessaries of life and Employment for our Fisherman 
and Small Craft wee the Inhabitants aforesaid do petition the legeslature 
of our Nation that the Embargo law may be so modified that wee can 
have a communication by water with the State of New York & Con- 
necticut so far as Relates to the Above Articles of Export and to bring 
back In return Bread Stuff and all the other Articles of Necessity for 
the use of our Families under such Restrictions and regulations As the 
Legislature and presadant of the United States may In their Wisdom 
direct and your petitioners In Duty bound will Ever pray.' 

The town of Edgartown responded to the suggestions of 
Tisbury in this matter,' and held a meeting on February 23 
following. 

For the purpose of knowing the opinions of the inhabitants of said 
town of the propriety or impropriety with respect to a petition being pre- 
sented by said inhabitants to the General Government of the United 
States in Congress assembled, that the Government would in some measure 
remove the inconveniencies the s'd inhabitants labor under in consequence 
of the restrictions imposed on s'd inhabitants by the present existing 
Embargo Laws of the United States. 

Jethro Worth, Leonard Jernegan, and Ichabod Norton 
were chosen a committee to draft the petition, but after ad- 
journment and reassem.bling, the committee were not prepared 
to report, and the plan fell through.^ 

'Tisbury Records, 369. 
^Edgartown Records, II, 205. 

422 



Military History, 1800-1900 

In the spring and summer of 1814 a British blockading 
squadron hovered about our waters, making salHes against 
the smah ports about Buzzards Bay, the Vineyard, and Nan- 
tucket. The brig-of-war Nimrod was one of the vessels of 
this squadron which operated against the island, and she was 
engaged in seizing small craft, foraging at unprotected places, 
and harassing the commerce of southern New England. The 
flagship was a "74," which lay about Tarpaulin Cove and 
furnished crews and boats for the expeditions above referred to. 

During the War of 181 2 the Vineyard was well repre- 
sented in the privateer force of the United States, and Dart- 
moor prison had a respectable number of occupants from this 
place, but how many there were and from what particular 
localities is not known. Capt. Joseph Dias was one who was 
captured and sent to Dartmoor. He was from Tisbury, and 
neighbors have frequently heard him tell with ill-concealed 
anger of the attempt of himself and companions to escape, 
and that he would vow death upon the parties who betrayed 
and frustrated the plot. He was the father of Capt. Joseph 
Dias of Oak Bluffs, and of the wife of the late Capt. Lorenzo 
Smith, and the wives of the late John F. Robinson and the 
late Calvin Tilton. 

In this war William Jenkins Worth, of Edgartown par- 
entage, began his career in the army in 181 3, and displayed 
those qualities which later made him a hero in our third for- 
eign conflict; but his connection with the War of 181 2 was 
not through the Vineyard, as his enlistment was from New 
York. He fought at the battle of Niagara, in 18 14, and was 
promoted to the rank of major. Another Edgartonian, who 
took a part in one phase of the conflict, was John, son of Seth 
Marchant, born in 1758. He was over fifty years of age when 
the war broke out, but the opportunities of privateering at- 
tracted him, and he went out on one of the numerous vessels 
fitted for that purpose in this region. She was captured by a 
British cruiser and taken into Sierra Leone, where on July 15, 
1813, he died, whether of wounds or disease, the records do 
not state. ^ 

The underlying temper of New England, and conse- 
quently of our people in this war, found expression through 
the famous "Hartford Convention," held in the capitol of 

'Rev. Joseph Thaxter's Obituary Record, 1813. It is probable that he died of 
tropical disease, as it is stated that twenty-eight out of eighty-six, composing her crew, 
perished there. 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

Connecticut in the month of December, 1814, under the presi- 
dency of George Cabot of this state. While the sessions were 
conducted in secret by the delegates from the several states, 
and it was charged with treasonable designs hy the Demo- 
cratic partisans, yet it is now conceded that the members wxre 
actuated by honorable motives and inspired by patriotic in- 
terests. The convention denounced the further continuance of 
the war, protested against the treatment of Massachusetts by 
the general government, and recommended the restriction of 
the power of Congress in declaring wars and the laying of 
embargoes. While all this was going on, peace negotiations 
were progressing in Belgium, and on the day before the con- 
vention met at Hartford a treaty of peace had been signed by 
the plenipotentiaries. Thus closed our second war with the 
mother country, which, despite this condition of apathy, w^as 
brilliant with the exploits of our seamen, who in their myriad 
craft scoured the ocean, even to the chops of the English 
channel, hung on the flanks of British commerce with the 
determination to be revenged for the insults to their brother 
sailors, until that nation was whipped to a standstill. Although 
"sailors' rights" were not mentioned in the treaty, yet such was 
the lesson taught to English seamen in that war, that im- 
pressment has never since that day been attempted by her, 
in war or peace. 

Only fragmentary allusions to men from the island who 
served in this war are to be found in scattering publications 
of the period. *In a list of deaths in Dartmoor prison are 
found the names of Peter Amos and John Jennings of Gay 
Head, both probably Indians.^ Henry Vincent of Homes Hole 
and Richard Norton and Prince Daggett, both of Edgartown, 
were captured and confined in this same prison during the war, 
and Vincent died there in 18 14. James Dexter, James Blank- 
enship, Timothy Snow, James Simpson, and William B. Fisher 
also took part in this war. The "Yankee," a privateer in this 
war, was commanded by Lieutenant Milton, who lived on 
South Water street in Edgartown. Her log shows that Joseph 
Dias and Joseph Marchant were prize masters at various times 
during her employment in this service. 

Matthew Daggett, son of Elijah (181) of Tisbury, was 
another victim in his war. He died at Lake Ontario in 1814, 
and possibly was connected with the naval service at the 
time. 

^Andrews' Memoirs of Dartmoor Prison (1852), p. 140. 
424 





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MAJ. GEN. WILLIAM J. WORTH, U. vS. A. 
1 794-1849 



Military History, 1800-1900 

THE MEXICAN WAR. 

This conflict with our neighbor on the south, Kke that of 
1812, had httle support in New England. No bodies of troops 
went from this region, and but Httle interest was manifested 
in the prosecution of the war. 

The principal interest to the Vineyard respecting this war 
is the prominent part taken in it by General William Jenkins 
Worth, U. S. A., a distinguished descendant of two well- 
known families of Edgartown. Although not born in Edgar- 
town, young Worth spent a part of his boyhood in that village, 
and was baptized there when he was ten years old on April 8, 
1804, at the Congregational Church by Parson Thaxter. 
General Worth died in Texas May 7, 1849, and the city of 
New York erected an equestrian statue of him in Madison 
Square, as its tribute to the honorable services rendered by 
him in behalf of his country. 

Two half brothers of General Worth also participated in 
this war: Captain Joseph Swasey Worth, Eighth Regiment, 
U. S. A., who died in 1846, and Lieutenant Algernon Sidney 
Worth, U. S. N., who died in 1841, on board the sloop-of-war 
Concord. 

CIVIL v^AR, 1 86 1 -5. 

The great struggle between the North and the South is 
within the memory of the present generation, and it will not 
be necessary to make extended comment on this great sec- 
tional conflict for the preservation of the Union. The older 
ones among us remember the wave of patriotism which swept 
over this Commonwealth, and the prompt response made by 
its citizens to the calls of the General Government for support 
in this crisis.^ The Vineyard did its required share in supply- 
ing men and money for the prosecution of the war, and in 
common with other sections of the state suffered great losses 
in blood and treasure. The record of the three towns as 
respects their quotas of men furnished shows a total of two 
hundred and forty soldiers and sailors credited to the Vineyard, 
which the county furnished for the army and navy during the 
war. It filled its quota on every call made by the president, 
and at the end had a surplus of forty-seven men over and above 

^Samuel Pent of Edgartown, at present living on Summer street, was the first 
person from Edgartown to volunteer in the Union army during the Civil war; mus- 
tered in August, 1862. He was later a lieutenant of cavalry. 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

all demands. The expenses of the towns on account of the 
war, exclusive of state aid, were $51,222.92. The amount 
raised and paid for state aid to soldiers' families during the 
war, and afterwards refunded by the Commonwealth, was 
$7,561.97. Total amount, $58,784.89.^ Lists of participants, 
either native of or credited to the three towns, will be found 
in the appendix. 

Adjutant-General Schouler, the historian of the services 
rendered by Massachusetts in this war, says of Edgartown: 
"We know that great activity prevailed in this town during 
the whole time in raising men and money." The selectmen 
report in 1866 that Edgartown had furnished one hundred 
and twenty-five men for the war, which was very far short of 
the men actually furnished and credited." Probably the men 
who served in the navy and men who were enlisted in other 
places were not reported, as Edgartown filled its quota upon 
every call made by the President, and at the end of the war 
had a surplus of forty-six over and above all demands. The 
number, therefore, which it really furnished could not have 
been less than two hundred and thirty. Three were com- 
missioned officers. The whole amount of money appropriated 
and expended by the town on account of the war, exclusi^T of 
state aid, was twenty- three thousand three hundred and twenty- 
five dollars and thirteen cents ($23,325.13). 

The amount of money raised and expended by Edgartown, 
during the four years of the war, for state aid to the families 
of enlisted m.en, and which was afterward repaid by the Com- 
monwealth, was as follows: in 1861, nothing; in 1862, $390.10; 
in 1863, $944.06; in 1864, $1,088.82; in 1865, $700.00. Total 
amount in four years, $3,122.98. 

Tisbury's part in the w^ar w^as as follows: The first legal 
town meeting was held the 7th of May, 1861, when it was 
voted that Henry Bradley, chairman of the selectmen, be 
directed to confer with the authorities of the Commonwealth 
"to furnish an armed guard coaster to be stationed in the 
Vineyard Sound, for the protection of commerce passing 

^Shouler, "Massachusetts in the Civil War," II, 164. 

^The selectmen in 1861 were Jeremiah Pease, John H. Pease, Nathaniel Jernegan; 
in 1862, David Davis, John H. Pease, Cornelius B. Marchant; in 1863, William 
Bradley, Cornelius B. Marchant, Tristram Cleveland; in 1864, Benjamin Davis, 
John Vinson, Joseph T. Pease; in 1865, David Davidson, Samuel Keniston, Jere- 
miah S. Weeks. 

The town clerk during each of the years of the war was Barnard C. Marchant. 
The town treasurer in 1861 was David Fisher; in 1862-63-64, John A. Baylies; in 
1865, Isaiah D. Coffin. 

426 



Military History, 1800-1900 

through the sound, and to furnish the town of Tisbury with 
three or more rifled cannon and one hundred stand of small 
arms, and equipments for the same, to be used by the inhabi- 
tants of the town to repel invasion." The governor and coun- 
cil gave an order for one cannon and carriage and one hundred 
muskets. It was then voted that the selectmen act in concert 
with the Coast Guard Committee of New Bedford, and, if 
needed, to borrow money sufficient to sustain a steamer "to 
ply in Buzzard's Bay for coast defences.^ On the 5th of 
November following, the selectmen were authorized to pay 
state aid to the families of volunteers, as provided by law, 
and in the next year the selectmen were authorized to pay a 
bounty of one hundred and twenty-five dollars to each volun- 
teer for three years' service, who should enlist and be credited 
to the quota of the town; "also, that he shall receive one dollar 
a month for each member of his family that is dependent on 
him for support during his term of service, in addilion to what 
the state pays." 

Several meetings v/ere held in 1863, to devise ways and 
means to procure volunteers, and provide for the payment of 
state aid to their families; also to repay those citizens for 
money which they had advanced to assist in filling the quota 
of the town. 

By the returns made by the selectmen in 1866, Tisbury 
furnished eighty-eight men for the war, which must have 
meant only the number belonging to the town in the military 
service, as it filled its quota upon every call of the President. 
Tisbury had no surplus, but it furnished the exact number 
required of it, which must have been about one hundred and 
seventy. None were commissioned officers in the military 
service. The whole amount of money appropriated and ex- 
pended by the town on account of the war, exclusive of state 
aid, was $22,621.00. The amount of money raised and ex- 
pended during the years of the war for state aid to soldiers' 
families, and which was repaid by the Commonwealth, was 
as follows: in 1861, $54.12; in 1862, $509.20; in 1863, $1312.78 
in 1864, $1 1 70.88 ; in 1865, $650.00. Total amount, $3696.98.' 

*The selectmen in 1861 were Henry Bradley, David Smith, Bartlett Mayhew, 2d; 
in 1862-3, Matthew P. Butler, Joseph S. Adams, Bartlett Mayhew, 2d; in 1864-5, 
Henry Bradley, Charles D. Harding, Bartlett Mayhew, 2d. 

The town clerk during each year of the war was Lot Luce. The town treasurer, 
during the same period, was Charles Bradley. 

^Tisbury paid the largest bounty in the state, five hundred dollars, for three year 
enlistments. 



427 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

Chilmark's part in the war was as follows: The first legal 
town meeting, to act upon matters relating to the war, was 
held on the i6th of December, 1861, at which the town voted 
to authorize the selectmen "to act according to the law of the 
Commonwealth, in regard to the payment of state aid to the 
families of volunteers who have enlisted in the military service 
of the United States." This system of paying bounties to 
volunteers and state aid to their families continued until the 
end of the war. 

The selectmen in 1866 reported that Chilmark had fur- 
nished twenty-six men for the war, which undoubtedly is only 
the number of residents of the town who were in the military 
service. The town clerk, under date of Jan. 16, 1871, wrote 
as follows: "As to the number of men furnished, we cannot 
tell. All we know, we filled our quotas and paid some $5000 
in bounties for volunteers." The truth is, Chilm.ark furnished 
about sixty men for the war; for after having filled every 
demand made upon it by the President, the town had a surplus 
of one over and above all demands.^ One was a commissioned 
officer. The whole amount of money appropriated and ex- 
pended by the town on account of the war, exclusive of state 
aid, was $5,151.79. The amount of money raised and ex- 
pended by the town for state aid to soldiers' families during 
the four years' of the war, and which was afterwards repaid 
by the Commonwealth, was as follows: in 1861, $25.71; 
in 1862, $132.00; in 1863, $104.00; in 1864, $232.72; in 1865, 
$90.44. Total amount in four years, $586.87. 

During the years 1861-63, and until the 17th of March, 
1864, Gosnold was a part of the town of Chilmark, and its 
war history up to that date forms a part of the history of that 
town. Only one person enlisted from Gosnold, and he served 
until the close of the war. The town raised $155.14, after its 
incorporation, for support of the war.^ 

The maritime interests of the Vineyard suffered directly 
and indirectly by the war on account of the depredations of 

'The selectmen in 1861 were Horatio W. Tilton, Tristram Mayhew, Stephen D. 
Skiff; in 1862, Tristram Mayhew, John W. Mayhew, Smith Mayhew; in 1863, Tris- 
tram Mayhew, Samuel T. Hancock, John Hammett; in 1864, Herman Vincent, 
Horatio W. Tilton, William Norton; in 1865, Herman Vincent, Tristram Mayhew, 
Moses Adams. 

The Town clerk in 1861-62 was Josiah W. Tilton; in 1863-64-65, James U. 
Tilton. The town treasurer in 1861 was Allen Tilton; in 1862-63-64-65, Benjamin 
Manter. 

^Shouler, II, 168. The selectmen for 1864-65 were Abraham C. Whitney, John W. 
Gifford, and Benjamin B. Church. The town clerk was Samuel E. Skiff. 

428 



Military History, 1800-1900 

the Confederate cruisers. The ship Ocmulgee, of Edgartown, 
four hundred and fifty-eight tons, valued with outfits and oil 
on board at $51,000, was the first vessel burned by the Con- 
federate privateer Alabama, Sept. 5, 1862. The Ocmulgee was 
commanded by Capt. Abraham Osborn, now^ living on South 
Water street. 

A list of those who served in the Civil War, 186 1-5, 
credited to the Vineyard in the military or naval establish- 
ments, will be found in the appendix to this work. 

SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR. 

The recent brief conflict with Spain furnished very little 
opportunity for service except for the existing naval establish- 
ment and a limited number of troops in Cuba and Porto Rico. 
No troops went from the island, and the activities of the people 
were necessarily enlisted in moral rather than material support 
of the war. Organized committees of ladies prepared articles 
of utility and comfort for the soldiers in this campaign. Four 
young men from the Vineyard enlisted during this brief war, 
viz: — Herbert Rice, Morton Mills, Manuel Nunez and Stan- 
ley Fisher, the last named serving in the Philippines. One 
of the earliest casualties of the war, the death of Ensign Worth 
Bagley, U. S. N., is of local interest, as his ancestors were of 
an old Edgartown family. 




CROSSED WEAPONS. 

CUBAN MACHETE — FIUPINO BOI.O. 



429 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

Whale Fisheries. 

The daring business of catching and kilHng whales is of 
very ancient origin, if we may judge from the occasional al- 
lusions to it, in the early literature and the pictorial history of 
the Anglo-Saxon race. It was a sport and occupation of the 
sea kings of the north, who sought this giant of the deep, not 
only for its oil, but used its flesh for the food, which they ob- 
tained from the tongue. That it furnishes the inhabitants of 
the Arctic circle with subsistence is well known. It is not 
probable that, at this early period, the bone was deemed of 
much importance, but in the fifteenth century it became an 
article of commerce, and was regarded of great value. The 
tail of every whale taken by her subjects was reserved for the 
special use of the Queen of England. Nor were the people of 
the northern latitudes alone in the development of this business. 
The Portuguese followed it in the equatorial region, and the 
Dutch, always famous for their maritime enterprises, prose- 
cuted whale fishing for a long period. To them is attributed 
the improvement, if not the invention of the harpoon, the use 
of the reel and line and the lance. 

The Indians found here by the first settlers were really 
the pioneer American whalemen. In their frail birch-bark 
canoes they attacked these monsters of the ocean with an 
audacity that astonished the English planters. Their light 
craft were the models of the first whaleboats of the white 
men, and to this day the Yankee whaleboat, the most sea- 
worthy light craft afloat to-day, is a replica of the sharp, 
double-prowed canoe in all its essential characteristics. The 
first settlers on our coast were not fishermen by occupation, 
most of them having been drawn from the agricultural and 
mechanical classes among the yeomanry of England, but their 
new home proved but a barren soil, compared with the garden 
richness of the land they had left, and the unproductive nature 
of the earth on the new England shores forced them to turn 
to the sea for part of their sustenance. Their attention was 
early drawn to the greatest of all the denizens of the deep, the 
mighty whale, as they saw the dusky aborigine in hot chase 
of the prey. In those days whales were exceedingly plentiful 

430 



Whale Fisheries 

in our waters, and "drift" whales, so-called, were common 
spectacles upon the beaches of New England, carried up there 
lifeless, after some titanic struggle, to dry and decay in the 
sun and winds. They were also easy of approach, apparently 
tame, according to the testimony of the early voyagers. Cap- 
tain John Smith, in his exploration of our coast in 1614, found 
them so numerous and neighborly in their habits, that he 
employed some of his spare time in the task of catching them. 
Another observer, emigrating to New England, a few years 
later, observing these great schools playing round this vessel, 
wrote in his journal that he saw, at the end of his Aoyage, 
''mighty whales spewing up water like the smoke of a chimney, 
and making the sea about them white and hoary, as is said in 
Job, of such incredible signes that I will never wonder that the 
body of Jonas could be in the belly of a whale." 

Whale fishing is indissolubly connected with the name of 
our neighboring island of Nantucket, but she was not the first 
in the field of this enterprise, which has lent such a picturesque 
coloring to the annals of our merchant m.arine.^ Long Island, 
Cape Cod, and Plymouth had been for years pursuing these 
leviathans of the deep, before Nantucket began her career in 
this field of human endeavor, until she gradually drew from 
the ''seven seas" of the known earth the livelihood denied 
by her own sterile soil and contracted acres. Our own settle- 
ment was not more than ten years old before the subject of 
whales found mention in the records. At first it related to 
"drift" whales, set on shore by the tide and winds. The 
earliest reference to this is under date of April 13, 1653: — 

Ordered by the town, that the whale is to be cut freely, four men at 
one time and four men at another; and so every whale, beginning at the 
east end of the town.' 

From that time forward we may date the inception and 
progress of the present art of capturing this marine mammal. 
They could be seen close in shore, not entirely stranded, and 
boats could easily encircle and capture them. Then watchmen 
were posted along shore to give warning of their approach, 
and from these small beginnings grew the actual occupation 
of hunting for them in deeper waters. The value of these 

^In 1672 the proprietors of Nantucket entered into an agreement with one James 
Lopar "to carry on a design of whale Citching." (Nantucket Records, Vol. I.) 

'Edgartow^n Records, I, 149. William Weeks and Thomas Daggett had been 
chosen whale "cutters" the previous year. 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

''drift" whales was sufficient to cause them to be reckoned a 
part of the common rights of the proprietors of the soil, and 
rules and regulations were adopted for their division. In 
1658, when the elder Mayhew bought Chickemmoo, the 
Sachem sold with the land "four spans round in the middle of 
every whale that comes upon the shore of this quarter part and 
no more.'"^ This claim of the Indian chiefs to the rights of 
flotsam and jetsam upon the shores of their domains was simi- 
lar to the sovereign rights obtaining in civilized countries, 
and was admitted by Mayhew upon the Vineyard. When 
land was thus bought from them these "privileges" were par- 
ticularly enumerated, and in turn when the land passed to 
another the "rights of fish and whale" were always included. 
When a new proprietor was admitted, likewise, he was granted 
a share of fish and whale, and such rights or " accommodations" 
were mentioned as late as 1676, when the lands and inheritances 
of a proprietor were recorded. This right was the frequent 
subject of litigation among the settlers and Indians. In 1679, 
William Vinson complained against Job and Nataquanum 
alias Prisilla "for detaining an yard and half square of a whale 
belonging to the said Vinson. The jurie find for the plaintiff 
the full worth of one yard and a half of Blober and cost of 
sute and twelve pence damage."^ 

The inventories of some of our early settlers give evidence 
of the utilization of the whale for domestic purposes. Richard 
Arey's estate, in 1669, showed "Half a Barrell of Oyl" and 
doubtless the "great Kittells" belonging to John Bland, and 
the large "Iron Pot," listed in the inventory of John Gee, a 
fisherman, of the same date, were for trying out the blubber 
of whales.^ It will thus be seen that the Vineyard was among 
the first of the colonies to make use of the whale as a com- 
mercial industry. As late as 1690 the people of Nantucket 
were in the infancy of the art, of which later they became 
masters. In that year, finding that the people of Cape Cod 
had made greater proficiency in the art of whale catching than 
themselves, they sent thither and employed Ichabod Paddock 
to instruct them in the best manner of killing whales and ex- 



^c> 



'Dukes Deeds, I, 355. 

^Dukes Court Co. Court Records, Vol. I. In 1662 the town of Eastham voted 
that a part of every whale cast ashore should be appropriated for the support of the 
ministry. The early records of this island contain references to drift whales coming 
ashore in 1672 and 1685. (Deeds, V, 246-8.) 

'Edgartown Records, I, 40, 41, 50. 



Whale Fisheries 

tracting their oil.^ The latter was the principal material in 
the whale which they sought at first. The process called 
''saving" the whales after they had been killed and towed 
ashore, was to use a "crab," an implement similar to a cap- 
stain, to heave and turn the blubber off as fast as it was cut. 
The blubber was then put into carts and carried to try-houses, 
which in the early days were placed near their dwelling houses, 
where the oil was boiled and fitted for home or commercial 
use. There was a try house at the swimming place before 
1748, the location of the Butler homestead, the significance of 
which will be referred to later on.^ As the whales became less 
tame, through the growth of the business of hunting them, 
the Vineyarders had to go further out into the sea for them, 
but this did not take place for many years. Lookouts were 
erected on the shore to locate their game, a tall tree being 
utilized or a stout spar set up, with cleats affixed, and a seat 
devised from which the welcome shout, "There she blows!" 
could be heard by the waiting crews. As an instance of the 
extent of the yield in early times it is stated that in 1726 there 
were eighty-six whales captured, the greatest number on 
record, while one day's "bag" amounted to eleven.^ These 
whales were known as the "Right" whale, whose scientific 
name is Balaena Mysticetus, the whale with the bone, now so 
valuable. The Spermaceti whale, or Physeter Macrocephalus, 
was not found for many years until they had penetrated more 
southern waters.* 

THE FIRST KNOWN VINEYARD WHALERS. 

The distinction of being the first whaler on the Vineyard 
cannot be awarded with certainty, before 1 700, but there is on 
record, immediately thereafter, an account which gives us the 
first name of a whale fisherman among our inhabitants. The 
entry is as follows : — 

Martha's Vineyard 1702-3 The marks of the whales killed by John 
Butler and Thomas Lothrop — one whale lanced near or over the shoulder 
blade, near the left shoulder blade only; — Another killed woth an iron 
for ward in the left side marks SS; and upon the right side marked with a 
pocket knife T. L.; — And the other an iron hole over the right shoulder 

^Macy, "History of Nantucket," 42. 

^Dukes Deeds, VIII, 153. There was also one at Homes Hole quite early. 

'Macy, "History of Nantucket," 44. 

^The first spermaceti whale came ashore at Nantucket about 1712. (Ibid., 48.) 

433 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

blade, with two lance holes in the same side, one in the belly. These 
whales wer all killed about the middle of February last past, all great 
whales between six and seven and eight foot bone, which are all gone 
from us. A true account given by John Butler from us and recorded.' 

This places John^ Butler (1650-1738), as our first known 
native whaler on record, with Thomas Lothrop, husband of 
Richard Sarson's daughter, as his mate, and doubtless the 
"tryhouse" above referred to was once his property. That 
Butler had been engaged in this occupation for some time, 
and was an expert is amply evidenced by the number of his 
catches enumerated in one month, and we may conclude that 
it had been his business for a considerable time before 1700 
even. 

In this industry the settlers brought to their assistance the 
superior knowledge of the Indians of the habits of these fish, 
and every boat's crew had in it a goodly proportion of natives 
to guide and manage their boats when the struggle was on. 
Because of this, the settlers were enabled to fit out a greater 
number of boats than they could have otherwise done.^ The 
most active Indians were selected as steersmen, and some 
were even allowed to head the boats. In time they became 
experienced- whalemen, capable of conducting any part of the 
business. This situation developed, particularly when the 
Vineyarders began to go out farther for their prey, "deep" 
whaling as distinguished from "shore" whaling, in small 
sloops and schooners of twenty to thirty tons, involving ab- 
sences of several weeks. About this time we begin to find 
the trade of "cooper" attached to the names of residents in 
documents, a necessary adjunct to the prosecution of the busi- 
ness of whaling, as hogsheads and barrels were required to 
contain the oil prepared for the market. This outlet was 
found in Boston, of course, as the great commercial centre of 
New England at that period. Increased results, growing trade, 
and larger profits demanded further facilities, and the whalers 
were encouraged to increase the size of their vessels, and to 
make longer voyages and seek more distant seas in pursuit of 
both the "right" and spermaceti whales. Meanwhile the oc- 
casional stranded monster would afford the inhabitants an 
easy prey, and often a law siiit. In Pain Mayhew's " Common- 

'Edgartown Records, I, 107. 

^In 1 7 15 there were six vessels engaged in whaling from Nantucket, which pro- 
duced ^iioo sterling, or about $20,000 of our money value. 

434 



Whale Fisheries 

place Book," about 1720, is found an "account of the Kings 
whale," which was one drifted ashore, and so belonging of 
right to the king, by ancient law. 

The court records of 1724 contain the proceedings in a 
suit begun by Pain Mayhew, Jr., against Jabez Lumbert of 
Barnstable, whale fisherman, concerning an agreement made 
that year as to a joint whaling trip in Barnstable Bay, between 
Cape Cod and Boston, which w^as referred to as "a great 
voyage." In 1725, Samuel Merry, John Tilton, and four 
others took a whale near Noman's Land, making twenty-six 
barrels of oil, w^hich brought them to court for a settlement 
two years later. The Vineyard being an island which could 
support agricultural industries as well, did not depend upon 
whaling and the fisheries solely, as its chief occupation, as 
Nantucket was obliged to do, but in the proportion as its sons 
undertook the calling, they stood in the foremost group of men 
who carried its name into distant seas. And it now seems 
remarkable to what limits they went in their little vessels of 
small tonnage. From Greenland to the Guinea coast they 
were to be seen in the first half of the i8th century keenly 
scenting the haunts of those monsters of the deep, far from the 
hospitable shores of men of their race. The following schedule 
will show, as nearly as can be ascertained, the times when the 
whale fishery commenced at the places named below, prior to 
the Revolution : — 

Davis Straits (Greenland), 1746 Coast of Guinea, Barbadoes, 1763 

Bafl&n's Bay 175 1 Western Islands, 1765 

Gulf of St Lawrence 1761 Brazil,^ i774 

One of the successful whalers of the middle of that century 
was Captain Peter^ Pease of Edgartown, born in 1732, and a 
sailor from his boyhood. He was one of the dauntless mari- 
ners of his day, and from his account books we gather the 
details of some of his voyages made in the frozen waters of 
the North or the tropical regions near the equator, in search 
of the rich products of the deep. We first hear of him in 1762, 
at the age of thirty, as master of the sloop Susanna, on a voy- 
age to the capes of Virginia, from w^hence he took his cargo 

^Macy, "History of Nantucket," 65. The business was also carried on in shorter 
voyages to the Grand Banks, Cape de Verde Islands, Gulf of Mexico, Carribean Sea, 
and the Spanish Main. Sometimes these voyages were made in brigs, but until the 
Revolution the American whaler was seldom larger than one hundred tons. Some 
of them carried three or four boats and a crew of thirty men. 

435 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

to Boston/ The next year he made a voyage to the West 
Indies, and the following entry in his books is worth transcrib- 
ing:— 

Nov. 27, 1763. Sloop Susanna, Peter Pease, from Martha's Vine- 
yard to Barbadoes. Arrived Dec. 23. Had a shot from the fort for not 
dousing our foresail at the sight of the King's colors. Next morning 
went to the Captain of the fort to make restitution for the shot, and to 
pay the anchor money, and settled all. Took a walk in the town at ten 
saw a man put in the pillory for robbing and cheating. 

The supplies taken by him for this voyage of six months' 
duration in the sourthen latitudes is shown in the following 
list entered on his books : — 



ACCOUNT 


OF STORES 


For Sloop Susannah, Capt. 


Peter Pease, from Martha's Vir 


West Indies, 


whahng, Nov. 1763. 


7 Barrels Beef, 






3 files. 


4 " Pork, 
3 " Flour, 






I Tea pot, 
I coffee pot, 


I " Molasses, 






5 Bushel Salt, 


I " Rum, 






I Crow bar, 


^ firkin Butter, 
130 feet pin boards, 
30 Irons, 






3 Compasses, 
I pitch fork, 
I inch auger, 


I Spade, 

I side good leather, 






4 Bushels Beans, 
3 " Meal, 


2 good pots, 
12 Codfish hooks. 






4 " Turnips, 
2 " Potatoes 


I pr. Canthooks, 






2 " Salt, 


3 padlocks, 
I Iron ladle, 






16 " Corn, 
12 Lances, 


I Iron shod shovel, 






120 fathoms cordage, 


IIOO lbs. Bread 
56 " Sugar, 
4 " Chocolate, 






250 copper nails, 
I pewter basin, 
16 Runner hooks. 


2 " Tea, 






I Barrel Tar, 


I " Pepper, 
50 " Cheese, 






I hatch bar, 
I Tea kettel. 


56 " Rice, 

14 '* Candles. 






I Scraper, 



^He is the person referred to in the following journal of the Betsey of Dartmouth, 
fishing on the Grand Banks: — 

"(1761) August 6th. Spoke with two Nantucket men; they had got one whale 
between them, they told us that Jenkins & Dunham had got four whales between 
them, and Allen & Pease had got 2 whales between them Lat 42 57." (Ricketson, 
History of New Bedford, 62.) 

The names of Jenkins, Dunham, Allen, and Pease are all Vineyard families, 
but we have no sure means of identifying them, though probably Peter Pease is in- 
tended, and perhaps Joseph Jenkins of Edgartown and Shubael Dunham of Tisbury, 
both of whom were sea-faring men. 



Whale Fisheries 

Further entries in his books show voyages made each year 
succeeding. 

When spring returns with western gales, 

And gentle breezes sweep 
The ruffling seas, we spread our sails, 
To plough the wat'ry deep. 

Thus an old whaling song tells of the annual call to the 
bosom of old Ocean felt by those hardy mariners. Further 
quotations show his work : — 

July 15, 1764. Sloop Sjtsanna, Peter Pease, for Grand Banks in 
company with Capt. Josep Pease. 

Aug. 14. Spoke Capt. Joseph Huxford, whaling. Arrived Oct. 10, 
1764. 

May 13, 1765. Schooner Lydia, Peter Pease, of Martha's Vineyard. 
Returned Sept. 30, 1765. Nantucket & Grand Banks. Same vessel & 
same destination left Edgartown. 

This last was a voyage to Greenland, and the stores 
shipped for a northern trip, as shown by his accounts, stand as 
a contrast to the previous list, especially in an increase of the 
quantity of rum, and justify another quotation from the old 
whaling song above referred to, written by John Osborne of 
Sandwich (born 1713), and probably the oldest ballad on the 

•^ ' For killing northern whales prepared 

Our nimble boats on board 
With craft and rum, (our chief regard). 
And good provisions stored. 

DISASTROUS EFFECTS OF THE REVOLUTION. 

The Revolutionary war gave almost a finishing stroke to 
the business of whaling in America. When the war began 
there were in the whole American fleet of whalers between 
three and four hundred vessels of an aggregate of about 33,000 
tons, manned by about five thousand seamen. Of these per- 
haps a quarter belonged to Nantucket and the Vineyard, of 
course the greater part credited to the former island. For 
ten years preceding the war the number of vessels in this 
region, with the quantity of oil obtained, is shown in the fol- 



lowing i 


table : — 










Date 


Vessels 


Barrels 


Date 


Vessels 


Barrels 


1763 


60 


9,238 


1768 


125 


15,439 


1764 


72 


11,983 


1769 


119 


19,140 


1765 


lOI 


11,512 


1770 


125 


14,331 


1766 


118 


11,969 


1771 


115 


12,754 


1767 


108 


16,561 


1772 


98 


7,825 



437 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

At this time the industry was in its infancy in New Bed- 
ford, the first merchant to engage in it there being Joseph 
Russell, about 1760, while our island and Nantucket had had 
almost a century's experience before that date. 

The following extract from a table, a part of a report 
made to Congress, by Thomas Jefferson, shows the actual 
state of the whale fisheries on the Vineyard, between the years 
1771 and 1775: — 

Vessels fitted annually for the Northern catch 12 

Tonnage of same ■ 720 

Number of seamen employed 166 

Barrels of spermaceti oil taken annually 900 

Barrels of whale oil taken annually 300 

From this account it will be seen that the vessels averaged 
sixty tons each for the Arctic voyages, manned by an average 
crew of thirteen. This table does not seem to include those 
engaged in the industry in southern latitudes. The report 
makes the following comments on the values of the oil and 
bone at that period. — 

The average price in the market, for a few years previous to the war 
was about forty pounds sterling per ton, for spermaceti oil; and fifty 
pounds sterling for head matter. The average price of whale was about 
seventy dollars per ton. A whale producing about one hundred and 
twenty barrels of oil will generally produce about two thousand pounds 
of bone. A whale producing fifty or sixty barrels of oil, will generally 
produce nearly ten pounds of bone to the barrel. The bone was chiefly 
exported to Great Britain, the price about half a dollar per pound. 

Computing the capacity of a barrel at fifty gallons, and 
the weight at 350 pounds per barrel, we can arrive at an 
equivalent of 140 tons of spermaceti oil at ;^40 per ton, making 
a total value of ;!^6400 for this product annually for the Vine- 
yard. The bone can be eliminated from the reckoning. This 
sum was equivalent to $32,000 at that time, which, in considera- 
tion of the relative values of money, then and now, and esti- 
mating it at three to one, we may conclude that the yearly 
value of the whale fisheries to the Vineyard, at the outbreak 
of the Revolution, was about $150,000. This was the pros- 
perous period of the industry, both for our island and Nan- 
tucket, and such a lucrative business in the aggregate had ex- 
cited the jealousy of England from the time of its growth into 
importance, commercially considered, as well as from its 
national value as a nursery of American seamen. 

438 



Whale Fisheries 

The policy of England to cripple this valuable industry 
and transfer its headquarters to her ports was evident during 
the war of 1776. John Adams wrote in 1779: 'Svhenever an 
English man-of-war or privateer has taken an American vessel, 
they have given to the whalemen among the crevv, by order of 
government, their choice either to go on board of a man-of-war 
and fight against their country or go into the whale fishery." 
As a result of this policy, he declared that he knew of seventeen 




WHALERS AT EDGARTOWN WHARF 
DURING THE "FORTIES." 

vessels then engaged in the whaling business, off the coast of 
Brazil, of which "all the officers and men are Amicricans."^ 
After the Revolution both England and France made deter- 
mined efforts to transplant the business to their shores, and 
by the offer of alluring subsidies secured the services of some 
who had been ruined by the war, or whose knowledge was 
always for sale to the best market. William Rotch trans- 
ferred his business thither for a while, but later returned to 

'The freeholders of Tisbury, on Feb. i, 1781, voted "to make application to the 
General Court for Liberty to Whale Provided those so Disposed be at the whole cost 
of same." (Town Records, 238.) 



439 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

the familiar scenes of his earher Kfe in New Bedford. Some 
went to Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, some to Milford Haven, Eng- 
land, but like all islanders, they soon returned to their ocean- 
bound home where they found greater rewards awaiting them 
in the development of their calling under congenial skies, and 
beneath their own flag. 

As the business grew and larger vessels came into use, 
the shallow harbor of Nantucket would not accommodate 
their deeper draft, and it became necessary to seek better 
water. Consequently some fitted out at Edgartown, while 
others found a home port at New Bedford, which soon became 
almost as famous in the annals of whaling as Nantucket itself. 
But the assurance of safety and success did not come with the 
close of the Revolution, for the wars of France and England 
followed soon after, and the disastrous events preceding our 
second war with great Britain, 1812-15, put heavier burdens 
on the whaling industry than ever before. This is described 
in detail under the chapter dealing with that period, and need 
not be repeated here, as the whaling fleets suffered with all 
our maritime industries on the high seas, until the close of 
the war, when the English government was whipped into ac- 
knowledgment of our place in the conquest of the ocean as 
the highway of unrestricted commerce. 

EMPLOYMENT OF INDIANS. 

Reference has been made to the employment of the natives 
of the island in this industry. A writer, who visited the Vine- 
yard one hundred years ago, thus narrates the conditions sur- 
rounding this employment : — 

Ship owiiers come to their cottages, making them offers and persuad- 
ing them to accept them; and so rarely is Gay Head visited for any other 
purpose, that this was supposed at the light house to be my errand. This 
business of inviting the Indians is a sort of crimping, in which liquor, 
goods and fair words are plied, till the Indian gets into debt, and gives 
his consent. Taking the history from the mouths of the white people 
only, it appears that there is often much to be complained of in the busi- 
ness of the voyage, both in the Indian and in those with whom he connects 
himself. On the one hand great advantage is taken of his folly, his cre- 
dulity and his ignorance. On the other, he torments the ship or share 
owner with his indecision and demands, till the moment of the sailing of 
the ship. First, he agrees to go, and accordingly receives some stipu- 
lated part of his outfit; then he "thinks he won't go;" and then he is to 
be coaxed and made drunk. Again he "thinks" he "won't go" unless 

440 



Whale Fisheries 

such and such articles are supplied; and these articles he often names at 
random for the sake of inducing a refusal. One Indian was mentioned 
to me that he thought he would not go unless five pounds of soap were 
given him; and another that thought the same unless he received seven 
hats. The Indians find these voyages as little to their ultimate benefit 
as they are found by those I have lately mentioned; and their obstinate 
addiction to spirituous liquors makes their case still worse. Hence an 
Indian that goes to sea is ruined and his family is ruined with him.^ 

The French traveller, Crevecoeur, who visited our island 
during the Revolutionary period, refers to the employment of 
the natives of the Vineyard in the whale fishery. "They often 
go, like the young men of the Vineyard," he says, "to Nan- 
tucket and hire themselves for whalemen or fishermen; and 
indeed their skill and dexterity in all sea affairs is nothing in- 
feriour to that of the whites."^ This also was undoubtedly 
true, and between these observations of well known writers the 
just estimate may be formed. Certain it is that up to the 
most recent times, scarcely a vessel sent out under the auspices 
of Vineyardmen to the Arctic, but what contained in her crew 
some hardy descendant of the Nope branch of the Algonquian 
race. The whale fishery as an occupation engaged the ac- 
tivities of the oldest and best families among our people from 
its inception, not only in the capacity of financing the under- 
takings, but in the actual work itself. Side by side with these 
natives in the boats went the flower of Vineyard youth. The 
following scrap of commercial paper, of the date of 1790, gives 
evidence to this effect, the writer being the leading political 
and military person on the island in his generation : — 

Edgartown June i, 1790. 
Sir: 

Pleas to pay to Mr. Timothy Coffin the whole amount of my son 
Frederick's Voyage that he may obtain with you this Present Season in 
the Sloop Free Mason & his receipt Shall be your full Discharge for the 
same 

& oblige your Friend & Hum. Sevt. 

Capt. Joseph Peas. BERIAH NORTON. 

This serves also to show the way in which the business 
was conducted. It was the first of the co-operative methods 
of work where a number of men engaged to share the proceeds 
upon certain percentages, according to their duties and re- 

'Kendall, " Travels," II, 196. This was in 1806. 
'Lettres d'un cultivateur Americain, 159. 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

sponsibilities. Each man was engaged for a *'lay" or share, 
which is well illustrated in the accounts of the voyage of the 
ship Lion, in 1807. The vessel secured oil valued at $37,661, 
of which one-eighteenth, or $2,072 went to the captain, as his 
share, in lieu of regular pay; one twenty-seventh or $1,381 to 
the first mate; one thirty-seventh or $1,008 to the second mate; 
one forty-eighth to each of two leading men in the crew; and 
one seventy-fifth to each of the other white able seamen. The 
color line was drawn in those days, also, for the men of dusky 
skin did not receive more than one-eightieth or one ninetieth 
as their share. This custom of sharing obtains to this day 
in the small remainder of the once numerous force engaged in 
the great industry which now braves the winters of the Arctic, 
for the still profitable returns to the lucky vessel.^ The bal- 
ance, after expenses were paid, went of course to the owners 
of the vessels, and in the instance cited above, the profit to 
them, after paying shares and expenses, was $24,252 on that 
trip, or about two-thirds of the gross proceeds. 

EXTENSION TO THE PACIFIC. 

Whaling in the Pacific ocean dates from 1791, when the 
Washington, Captain George Bunker, first displayed the grid- 
iron ensign m the harbor of Callao, Peru, and became the 
pioneer of the numberless craft which made that port a common 
rendezvous for Yankee whalers in after years. This region 
was sought for the sperm whale in the south seas, where among 
the thousand reefs and islets of that archipelago, the little 
venturesome craft of Nantucket and the Vineyard braved the 
dangers of unknown shoals and known cannibals on inhos- 
pitable shores.^ These craft scarcely exceeded two hundred 
and fifty tons burthen, and the voyages lasted for eighteen to 
twenty-four months. War vessels of European nations, bound 
on what they thought were voyages of discovery, would find 
some enterprising whaler or sealer from these two isles of the 
Atlantic, coimly riding at anchor in the lea of a coral atoll 
which they were about to claim for their sovereigns by right of 
first discovery. And upon questioning these absurd little 
apple-bowed craft, the crestfallen commanders would learn 
that this was merely a safe harbor which they had long fre- 
quented for repairs, after still further voyages to the remoter 

'Starbuck, "History of American Whaling"; comp. Marvin, "American Mer- 
chant Marine," 140. 

'One of the islands of the Gilbert group is called Nantucket. 
442 



Whale Fisheries 

Antarctic regions/ The development of the business in this 
locality naturally opened up further penetration into the then 
almost unloiown equatorial seas of the Pacific, and in the next 
thirty-five years the famous "Off-Shore Ground" of the south- 
ern ocean became the scene of some of the richest catches in the 
annals of this mighty fishery. Thence the scent led further 
north into the waters about the Japanese archipelago, and by 
1822 there were thirty American whale ships busy among the 
great schools of spermaceti monsters that swam those seas. 
The three following decades were the golden age of our whale- 
men, for the ship Ganges, Folger, master, in 1835, took the 
first "right" v/hale on the Kodiak ground, and thus brought 
the north-west fishery into prominence. It only required a 
few years to develop this branch of the industry, and by 1843 
the first bow-head whales were captured off the coast of Kam- 
schatka, and in 1848 the bold and relentless Yankee whalemen 
pushed their adventurous prows into the narrows of Bering's 
straits, and gave chase to their game in the frozen w^aters of 
the Arctic. Here was found a field which appealed to the 
imaginative spirit of the dauntless seamen of our island. 
Exactly a century before their ancestors had plowed through 
Davis' straits into the waters of Greenland, and now they had 
''doubled the Horn" to enter the undiscovered waters of the 
Arctic on the opposite shores of the continent in pursuit of the 
same prey. Much of it reads like a romance, but they were 
born to it and could not be denied. Crevecoeur, in his visit 
to our island, made the following observations upon the mari- 
time vigor of the population, in 1782: — 

The island therefore is become a great nursery which supplies with pi- 
lots and seamen the numerous coasters with which this extended part of 
America abounds. Go where you will from Nova Scotia to the Missis- 
sippi you will find almost every where some native of this island employed 
in sea-faring occupations. Here are to be found the most expert pilots, 
either for the great bay, there found, Nantucket shoals, or the different 
ports in their neighbourhood. In stormy weather they are always at 
sea, looking out for vessels, which they board with singular dexterity, 
and hardly ever fail to bring safe to their intended harbor." 

Such were the progenitors of the men who sailed into un- 
known seas in the next century, and continued in the waters of 
the Pacific the pursuits successfully followed by them in 
the Atlantic. 

'North American Review, 1834. 
^Lettres d'un cultivateur Americain, 159. 

443 



History of Martha's Vineyard 



HAZARDS OF THE OCCUPATION. 

In the fifty years covering the period 1 767-1827, during 
which time Parsons Kingsbury and Thaxter kept a record of 
persons dying in Edgartown, there are entries of one hundred 
and thirty casualties among those who went "down to sea in 
ships and did their business in great waters." Of these 
thirteen are specifically named as occurring in whaling voy- 
ages, but it is certain that many of the others were engaged 
in that occupation when they met their deaths. The first men- 
tioned was Weeks, who died Oct. 2, 1769, "by a 

wound received from a whale." Richard Spragu'e was killed 
"by a whale" in 1772; Ansel, son of Prince Daggett, was 
"drowned at the Straits" in September, 1789; Sprowel Dun- 
ham died in August, 1807, "while on a whaling voyage in the 
Indian seas"; Charles Norton died April 3, 1818, drowned, 
"a whale stove the boat & before relief could get to him he 
sunk"; John Grossman died May 30, 181 8, "on a whaling 
voyage"; and Silas, son of Zephaniah Butler, was drowned 
in the Pacific ocean, December, 1824. 

The other six lost their lives in the ships Globe and Lady 
Adams, of which mention will be separately made. In 1767, 
Parson Kingsbury records "this year there were about 18 
persons lost at sea," a loss not after equalled in one year dur- 
ing the half century embraced in the above account. Of the 
one hundred and thirty deaths, seventy-two are entered as 
"foundered," "lost at sea," or "drowned"; forty died in the 
"West Indies," probably of yellow fever, or other tropical 
disease ; six were reported to have perished accidentally, falling 
from a mast, or knocked overboard by a boom, and Tristram 
Cleveland was "eaten up by an alligator in Batavia harbor." 
If the other two towns furnished an equal death roll in that 
same period, there were about four hundred deaths "at sea" 
from the Vineyard in that half century.^ 

In a little enclosure on the heights overlooking the harbor 
of Vineyard Haven, back of the U. S. Marine Hospital, is a 
moss-covered slate stone bearing an inscription which has 
amused hundreds by the quaint verbiage of the obituary poetry 
which concludes the epitaph : — 

'The earliest gravestone recording the death at sea, in the Lambert's Cove bury- 
ing ground, is erected to the memory of Anthony Luce, -who died March 20, 1769, 
aged thirty-six years. 



444 



Whale Fisheries 

John and Lydia 

That lovely pair 
A whale killed him 

Her body lies here. 

These lines, more fortunate in the clearness of statement than 
in poetic beauty, tell of the tragedy of the industry we are con- 
sidering. John Claghorn of Eastville, son of Thomas, the inn- 
keeper of that village, had married Lydia, daughter of Dr. 
Elisha West of Homes Hole, living just across the Lagoon, in 
February, 1770, he at the age of twenty-four and she one year 
younger. Before twelve months had passed both were dead, 
he a victim of the fury of one of the mighty monsters he was 
endeavoring to kill. When once aroused, this marine mammal 
knew no obstacle too great or too little to curb his rage. Sperm 
whales have been taken upwards of eighty feet long, and it 
was one of these toothed cetaceans w^hich rammed and sank 
the American ship Essex in the South Pacific in 1819, — one 
of the most extraordinary incidents in the history of naviga- 
tion. This kind of whale is believed to be the most dangerous 
to attack, and when the Essex was cruising a thousand miles 
off the coast of South America, an immense specimen of the 
genus, estimated about ninety feet long, was sighted dead 
ahead. Instead of sinking, as is their habit under the circum- 
stances, the monster made a run for the ship and drove head- 
long at the bows, just forward of the fore chains. The ship 
trembled as if she had struck a rock, and was brought up so 
violently that she shook from stem to stern. The whale passed 
under the vessel, scraping her keel as he went. The mate set 
the pumps going as he found the vessel had received a death 
thrust. The whale in the meanwhile had rounded to about 
a quarter of a mile off, and was lashing the water and opening 
and closing his jaws with great fury. Suddenly one of the 
crew shouted: "Here he is! He is making for us again!" 
The mate turned, and saw the giant cachalot coming once 
more towards the injured ship with tenfold fury and vengeance 
in his aspect. Before any defense could be used, the mon- 
strous head of this monarch of the sea struck her oak-ribbed 
bows and crushed them in as if they were sheet iron. The 
officers and crew had just time to get into small boats, when 
the Essex rolled over on her beam ends, full of water. ^ Another 

'Man'in, " American Merchant Marine," 152. The bufferings of the crews of the 
three boats, shipwrecked in mid-ocean, make one of the most hideous tales of the 
sea. They started for the coast of South America, the last week of November, and 

445 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

ship, the Ann Alexander, in 1850, was similarly wrecked in 
the South Pacific, after two of her boats had been smashed by 
the monster in succession. The captain had been able to 
haul his vessel round once or twice to avert the infuriated 
attacks, but the third time, the captain stood on the knight- 
heads, determined to finish the awful contest with the iron he 
held in his hands. With the speed of a locomotive the whale 
dashed towards the ship and struck her a terrible blow abreast 
the fore-mast, and she began to go down by the head. Five 
months later the belligerent spermaceti which destroyed this 
vessel was killed, and the harpoon hurled by the captain was 
found in his mighty carcass and fragments of the ship's timbers 
were imbedded in his great head. These instances are recited 
here to show the terrible power of the marine animals which 
our sea-faring kinsmen have hunted for two centuries, and the 
dangers to which they have been subjected. But while these 
are isolated cases of great disaster, the destruction of small 
boats was a frequent and familiar occurrence. Either end of 
the monster was dangerous for the boatmen, for he would 
crush the small boats with his jaws or thrash it into splinters 
with his terrible tail.^ 

The perils and uncertainties of the whaling business, and 
other forms of industry connected with the sea, is well illus- 
trated in the case of Captain Marshall Jenkins of Edgartown, 
who was engaged in these hazardous occupations before the 
Revolutionary war. He had one remarkable venture which 
found record in the newspapers of the pre-Revolutionary 
time. This occurrence is thus described: — 

We learn from Edgartown that a vessel lately arrived there from a 
whaling voyage; and in her voyage one Marshall Jenkins, with others, 
being in a boat which struck a whale, she turned and bit the boat in two, 
took Jenkins in her mouth and went down with him; but on her rising 
threw him into one part of the boat, whence he was taken on board the 
vessel by the crew, being much bruised; and that in about a fortnight 
after, he perfectly recovered. This account we have from undoubted 
authority."^ 

after the storms, hunger, thirst, and perils of the deep had reduced their numbers 
from thirty to eight, Captain Zimri Coffin of Nantucket rescued these living skeletons 
three months after the titanic combat in which the leviathan had come off victorious. 

'In the "Nimrod of the Sea" the author records a lively battle with a sperm 
whale of fighting instincts, encountered off the Rio de la Plata, in which four whale 
boats in succession were crushed in the jaws of the monster, and finished with the 
deadly blows of his tail. 

^Boston Post Boy, Oct. 14, 177 1. It is stated that the marks of the whale's teeth 
were borne for the rest of his life, a veritable evidence of the truth of this remarkable 
tale of the deep. (Vineyard Gazette, July 20, 1888.) This story was told the author 
of this history fifteen years ago by an "old salt" of Edgartown. 

446 



Whale Fisheries 

Associated in business with him were his elder brother, 
Lemuel Jenkins, and his brothers-in-law, John Pease and 
Ephraim Pease. There seems to have been no lack of energy 
and vigorous enterprise on the part of the owners. Still for- 
tune did not favor them. Disaster followed disaster. After 
the whaling season was over, one of their vessels, a schooner 
of seventy-five tons, was sent to the eastward, under the charge 
of Abraham Preble and Beriah Pease. They loaded the vessel 
with lumber, but in coming home the men, vessel, and cargo 
were all lost. Ephraim Pease, in one of their vessels in the 
West India trade, got on the rocks and lost vessel and cargo. 
The men wTre saved. Cornelius Marchant was in charge of 
a brig of theirs to the West Indias. The brig was taken, and 
vessel and cargo condemned. Some of the men got home. 
Thomas Coffin, in one of their vessels, the brig Sea Horse, 
loaded with salt from the West Indies, when in sight of Long 
Island, was taken by the English. The brig and cargo were 
condemned; a total loss. Another of their vessels which had 
a valuable cargo on board, bound to the West Indies, was 
taken the second day after sailing from the Vineyard. To 
these severe disasters another was added; a brig of theirs, ly- 
ing in Edgartown harbor, was burnt by the British. It is no 
wonder that after such repeated losses, they should seek their 
fortune in another direction, and relinquish forever all interests 
in navigation. ^.Accordingly, in the month of October, 1786, 
Lemuel Jenkins and his brother Marshall Jenkins, with their 
families, removed from Edgartown to Hudson, New York.^ 

TRAGEDIES OF THE SEA. 

These were the special perils of the occupation itself, to 
which came in the nature of events the ordinary perils of the 
deep, — storms, collision, founderings, hidden reefs, WTecks 
on savage isles, and the innumerable dangers of navigation. 
But in addition to this there happened mutinies and murders 
w^hich are directly attributable to the business of whaling, as 
it had to be carried on during weary voyages, with no diver- 
sions in port, the crew fed on monotonous diet, and the absence 
of wholesome recreation. In January, 1824, the history of 
the whale fishery was blotted by one awful tragedy, in which 
several Vineyard men lost their lives. The Globe of Nan- 
tucket, commanded by Captain Thomas Worth, was in the 

^Vineyard Gazette, May ir, 1888. 

447 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

South Pacific ocean on a whaling voyage, with Thomas Beetle 
as mate, while among the crew were Nathaniel Fisher, son of 
Amaziah of Edgartown, Gilbert, son of John Smith, Jr., and 
a son of Abishai Lambert of Chilmark. Samuel B. Comstock 
of Nantucket, one of the crew, became engaged in a friendly 
wrestling match with Fisher, who was third mate, and being 
readily defeated, swore revenge. Comstock led the crew to 
mutiny against the officers, and after killing Captain Worth 
and First Mate Beetle, they threw^ Lambert and Fisher over- 
board, took charge and steered for a secluded island to strip 
and destroy her. The ringleader, Comstock, was killed by 
his first assistant, one Silas Payne, after a disagreement. 
Parson Thaxter says: "Gilbert Smith, when the mutineers 
were on shore, cut the cable, put to sea with six of the crew, 
and got safe to Valparaiso." Of fhe ten mutineers left on the 
island eight were massacred by the natives. From the simple 
cause detailed above grew the most revolting tragedy that ever 
stained the decks of one of our whalers. But while this ter- 
rible catastrophe took place under the auspices of men of our 
own kindred, there were instances of treachery and bloodshed 
attributable to the passions of foreigners occasionally shipped 
with our crews. At first the only alien on board these ships 
was the Indian of our island, but towards the middle of the 
last century, as the whales became scarce, and the "shares" 
less profitable, the owners were obliged to fill the forecastle 
with the "floaters" along the docks. "The Portuguese of 
the Western Islands, the negroes of the Cape Verdes, and even 
the savages of the Pacific archipelagoes were drawn into our 
service," says one writer, "until an American whaleship was a 
kaleidoscope of colors, as well as a Babel of tongues." 

A tragic experience growing out of these conditions befell 
the ship Sharon, commanded by Captain Howes Norris of 
Eastville. On Sunday, Nov. 6, 1842, while the crew of the 
ship was busily engaged in the small boats chasing whales 
several miles off, three Kingsmill islanders who, with the cap- 
tain and a boy, were the only persons aboard, murdered 
Captain Norris in their usual treacherous manner. They had 
stolen upon him from behind and decapitated him with one 
swift blow of that terrible weapon, the cutting spade. The 
captain's headless trunk lay on the deck, and the boy had hid- 
den himself in the rigging aloft for refuge when the boats 
returned. Three howling savages, thirsting for more blood, 
met their astonished sight. Armed with harpoons, cutting 

448 



Whale Fisheries 

spades, axes, hammers, and belaying pins these wild-eyed 
savages, now aroused to the highest pitch of frenzy, dared 
them to come aboard. It was a situation that appalled the 
bravest, and the ofhcers and men lost their nerve. Not one 
would lead them, except the brave third mate, young Benjamin 
Clough, who volunteered to board the ship single handed. 
Under cover of darkness, he managed to climb into a cabin 
window, found the dead captain's cutlasses and muskets, and 
was loading the firearms, when he was discovered by one of 
the savages. A terrible hand-to-hand conflict followed, during 
which Clough received a severe wound, but managed to dis- 
able his foe. A second savage, aroused by the struggle, rushed 
to the scene and hurled a cutting spade at Clough, almost 
severing his arm, while at the same moment Clough shot his 
new assailant through the heart. The third savage, seeing 
the fate of the other two, leaped overboard, but swam back 
and climbing aboard, secreted himself in the forehold. The 
cautious crew, now assured of the safety of the decks, boarded 
the ship and joined the intrepid third mate. The last savage 
was soon secured and all further danger was ended. It is 
gratifying to record that Mate Clough sailed on her next voyage 
as Captain Clough, and that he became one of the most suc- 
cessful of the masters sailing out of New^ Bedford. 

Under date of April, 1825, Parson Thaxter records the 
deaths of Fordam Pease aged twenty-two and Charles Cofhn 
aged nineteen years, and in the remarks which usually follow 
his entries, occurs the comment: "They sailed in the ship 
Lady Adams. She has long been despaired of; it is thought 
they were lost about midsummer, 1823. They were very- 
promising young men." This is all that was ever known of 
this whaler. She was last spoken oi^ the coast of Japan, 
which at that time was a forbidden, as well as a forbidding 
shore. ^ 

The first ship from Edgartown to engage in whaling was 
the Apollo, which sailed on July 5, 1816, under the command 
of Captain Jethro Daggett, bound for the Pacific. The ship 
Hector was under several Vineyard masters, and was called 
the "luckiest whaleship afloat." From 1826 to 1853 she 
brought into port 19,697 barrels of sperm oil. She was suc- 

^In the year i860 there were the following whaling craft hailing from Edgartown: 
Ships Almira, Champion, Europa, Mary, Navigator, Ocmulgee, Omega, Richard 
Mitchell, Splendid, Vineyard, Walter Scott; Barks American, Ellen, Eureka, Louisa 
Sears, Rose Pool; Schooners E. A. Luce, Washington. 

449 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

cessively commanded by Captains Clement Norton, John O. 
Morse, Thomas A. Norton, James Gray, George Manter, 
Peter Smith and Henry Norton. Clement Norton was credited 
with having assisted in taking, during his sea service, 30,040 
barrels of oil. He had sailed over a million miles, went twelve 
voyages as master, and never lost a spar larger than a topsail 
yard. An Edgartown man. Captain Charles W. Fisher, is 
credited with the distinction of capturing the largest sperm 
whale ever killed, which yielded 168 barrels of oil, while mas- 
ter of the Alaska in 1884.^ 

The great disaster to the whaling fleet, which has remained 
in the memories of the people of the Vineyard since its occur- 
rence, happened in September, 1871, in the Arctic ocean. 
Thirty-one ships were lost, but the crews were saved after 
suffering great privations from hunger and cold and exposure. 
Edgartown lost two ships, the Mary and Champion, in this 
wholesale wrecking of the industry. The Europa of Edgar- 
town, Captain Thomas Mellen, aided in bringing the crews 
down from their perilous position. 

EDMUND BURKE'S TRIBUTE TO OUR WHALERS. 

The elocfuent tribute of Edmund Burke to the early 
whalemen of New England, in his famous speech before the 
House of Commons, in behalf of the American Colonies, has 
often been quoted; but it may here fittingly close our review 
of an industry which engaged the activities and enterprise of 
our island from its first beginnings. 

Look at the manner in which the people of New England have carried 
on the whale-fishery. Wliilst we follow them among the tumbling moun- 
tains of ice, and behold them penetrating into the deepest recesses of 
Hudson's Bay and Davis' Strait — whilst we are looking for them beneath 
the Arctic Circle, we hear that they have pierced into the opposite region 
of polar cold — that they are at the antipodes, and engaged under the 
frozen serpent of the south. Falkland Island, which seemed too remote 
and romantic an object for the grasp of national ambition, is but a stage 
and resting-place in the progress of their victorious industry. Nor is 
the equatorial heat more discouraging to them than the accumulated win- 
ter of both the poles. We know that whilst some of them draw the line 
and strike the harpoon on the coast of Africa, others run the longitude, 
and pursue their gigantic game along the coast of Brazil. No ocean but 

'One of the most successful whaling voyages on record is that of ship Gladiator, 
of New Bedford, which arrived in April, 1854, having taken 6200 barrels of oil and 
95,000 pounds of hone in forty-four months. 



Whale Fisheries 

what is vexed with their fisheries; no climate that is not witness to their 
toils. Neither the perseverance of Holland, nor the activity of France, 
nor the dexterous and firm sagacity of English enterprise, ever carried 
this perilous mode of hardy enterprise to the extent to which it has been 
pushed by this recent people, — a people who are still, as it were, in the 
gristle, and not yet hardened into the bone of manhood.' 

'Speech in Parliament on Conciliation with America, March 22, 1775. 




A CRITICAI, MOMENT. 

HARPOONING THB "RIGHT" WHAIyE. 



451 



History of Martha's Vineyard 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

Travel and Taverns. 

by ferry, packet, and steamboat. 

The necessities of travel in the early days, between the 
island and the mainland, found but little that was convenient 
for the wayfarer cither in taverns or transportation. Those 
intending journeys to or from the island had to await some 
''convenient opportunity" of a coastwise vessel to take him as 
a chance passenger, for there was no regular communication 
between the Vineyard and the nearest point of the cape for 
many years after the settlement of the island. In 1665 we 
get the first glimpse of the increased travel back and forth, 
when the townsmen of Falmouth licensed an inn-holder, "in 
regard that it doth appear that there is great recourse to & 
fro by travelers to Marthas Vineyard."^ Nothing further ap- 
pears upon our records to show that this increased travel was 
given the accommodation of a stated ferry, and if any existed 
it was operated by some person at Wood's Hole. That such 
an one was in use in 1700 is shown in our court records of 
that date, when "the fery at homes hole" is mentioned, and 
it is probable that it was licensed by the people of the cape 
town. Doubtless this was unsatisfactory, because not under 
the jurisdiction of our authorities, for early in 1703 the follow- 
ing action was taken to provide for a regular service : — 

Leift Isaac Chase is appoynted by this Courte to keepe a publike 
fery for the transporting of man and beast from Marthas Vineyard to 
Sickanesset alias falmouth and the fees allowed for said ferriage viz: — 
six shillings for a man and a hors or three shillings for each person or 
hors forew'd to s'd Suckanesset: but if he doth cary but one hors over sd 
ferriage that he shall have the sume of five shillings.^ 

For many years Isaac Chase had been keeping a tavern 
at Homes Hole, and he was the most natural person to combine 
the two functions. How long he exercised this dual public 
duty is not known, but in 1716 his son-in-law, Benjamin Weeks 
of Falmouth, is called "ferryman" and it may be inferred that 
Chase gave the business over to the younger man.^ It is how- 

'Freeman, " History of Cape Cod." 
^County Court Records, Vol. I. 
^Deeds, III, 148. 



Travel and Taverns 

ever more probable that ferries were operated from both sides 
of the Sound, owing to the distance and the difficulty of com- 
munication. In 1726, a year before the death of Chase, 
Samuel Barker of Falmouth was licensed by our County 
Court as ferryman between "homses hole & woodses hole," 
and the following fees were allowed: "Every man or woman, 
3s; Every horse, 3s; Ox, 5s; Every other beast, 4s; Every 
sheep or goat, 4d."^ 

In 1729 Lieut. Joseph Parker of Wood's Hole was licensed 
as ferryman by that town.^ 

In 1 741 another ferry was established by our county 
authorities, to run from Lambert's Cove to Wood's Hole, and 
John Cottle was appointed the first ferryman. How long this 
additional line was operated is not known. ^ 

In 1742 Abraham Chase was given the license to run the 
old ferry from Homes Hole, and the following fee table was 
adopted: "one man or woman, 5s; one man and horse, 8s; 
two men or women & horse, iis; i man or woman, 2 horses, 
lis; More persons at 4s each; Sheep 8d; Pair of Oxen, 
IS., 6d. & prorata; Cowes, 7s."* It will be seen that this 
is a considerable increase over the previous schedule, and it is 
probable from subsequent events that this tariff was not suf- 
ficient to reimburse the operator. Chase did not keep up his 
franchise regularly, and by 1750 the service was practically 
abandoned to the actual necessities of travel, rather than a 
regular routine of trips across. To remedy this state of affairs 
twenty-three of the leading men in the three towns addressed 
a memorial to Governor William Shirley, the Council, and the 
House of Representatives, setting forth their grievances, and 
asking aid of the province for providing a remedy. This 
petition is as follows : — 

The memorial of us the Subscribers inhabitance of Dukes County 
Humbly Sheweth that we have Laboured under Grate difBculty for sev- 
eral years past for want of a Stated ferry across the Vineyard Sound which 
has in a grate Measure deprived us from our equal Comerce with the 
rest of the Province, and although the Court of General sessions of the 
peace have offered to State the ferrage both for Men & beasts at a much 
hire rate than Usule yet Nobody appears to take it, Though Some that 
live handy to the harbour would willing undertake to keep it upon the 

'County Court Records. 

^Early History of Falmouth, p. 51. 

^County Court Records. 

*Ibid. Comp. Douglass, Summary, I, 403. 

453 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

terms ofifered but are not of ability to purchase a boat & other things 
Seutable for the desine: And therefore your memorelests humbly pray 
That your Excellency & honours will take the premises under your wise 
Consideration & pas an Act for the Procuring of a Suitable boat & wharf 
for the ferry at the publick charge of the Province or County or both, 
as your Excelency & honours Shall se fit, Or releve us from the difficulty 
we Labour under by Such other way or meens as your Excellency & 
honours in your grate wisdom shall Think best, & your Memorialists 
as in deuty bound shall ever pray.^ 

The General Court, in answer, passed an act embodying 
the reHef asked for, the text of which is as follows : — 

Whereas there is a provision made by Law for the Justices in their 
Quarter Sessions throughout this Province to License persons to keep 
ferries & State the fares or prices of each ferry both for man and beast, 
and to take bond of each ferry-man &c. But no provision is made by 
Law to enable the Justices in their Sessions to lay a Tax on any County 
for the Upholding & maintaining of Ferrys either by Building boats, 
wharfs, ways &c. Where there is no particular person or persons who 
will be at the cost thereof: By means whereof the S'd County of Dukes 
County is wholly destitute of a ferry from s'd County (which is an Island), 
to the main Land wherby many Inconveniences Daily happen to those 
that have Occasion to go to & from S'd County 

Be it therefore Enacted by the Governour, Council & house of repre- 
sentatives that the Justices of the Court of Gen'l Sessions of the peace 
at any of their sessions hereafter to be held in & for s'd County of Dukes 
County are hereby Enabled and Directed to raise monys & to Assess 
the Inhabitants of said County of Dukes county & their Estates as well 
for the building of Ferry boats making & maintaining suitable wharfs 
& ways for s'd ferry ways for the Convenience of keeping a ferry in s'd 
County in as full & Ample a manner as the Justice in s'd Quarter Sessions 
are by Law already Enabled to do for Defraying the Necessary repairs 
of Bridges, prissons. the maintenance of poor prisonners, and all other 
proper County Charges & under the same regulations & restrictions.^ 
(April 19th, 1754.) 

The ferry was now in the position of an institution re- 
ceiving state aid, in the form of a subsidy at its establishment, 
but it continued to be run as a private venture, in so far as the 
collection of toll was concerned. Even then it does not seem 
to have become a paying institution, for Elisha West, who 
was licensed as ferryman in 1756, petitioned the General 
Court in 1760 for payment of certain ferriage for troops trans- 
ported, and in it he states that "the Income of our ferry does 
not pay the Charge of Boats. "^ 

'Mass. Archives, CXXI, 300. It is dated Dec. i, 1753. 
%id., 301. 
^Ibid., LXXX, 10. 

454 



Travel and Taverns 

In 1758 West's license was enlarged in scope so as to 
permit him to operate "so far Eastward as Highanes and 
Westward as Dartmouth and thereabouts in Monument Bay." 
Upon the expiration of his term he was succeeded by Jonathan 
Manter, 1761, who held the franchise for ten years. During 
the Revolution, if is doubtful if there was any regular ferry 
service owing to the dangers of traffic, and the records are 
■silent on the subject. In 1784 Isaac Daggett was licensed to 
keep a ferry "to the Continent and Nantucket." 

It will not be necessary to follow further in detail the 
vicissitudes of the ferry from year to year, except as organic 
changes occur, or new features develop. At some time prior 
to 1782 a ferry was established between Edgartown and the 
mainland, according to a visitor to our island at that date. 
He records that "a good ferry is established between Edgar 
(town) and Falmouth on the main, the distance being nine 
miles." It is doubtful if this means the use of Edgartown 
harbor as the island terminus, as Eastville was then a part of 
Edgartown, and the landings were probably made at that 
point for the whole island.^ Ebenezer Smith was appointed 
to keep the county ferry in 181 9, "according to the ancient 
custom and usages." 

THE PACKET SERVICE. 

After the close of the Revolutionary war and the develop- 
ment of the postal facilities by the new government, there 
came a demand for better transportation service and some 
regular method of delivering the mails. When this was ac- 
complished is not definitely known, but probably by 1800 
regular boats began to run between New Bedford and the 
Vineyard, and this also accommodated the neighboring island 
of Nantucket, to which as early as 1807 the line was extended. 
Edgartown was the terminus for this place, and the service 
was, it is believed, tri- weekly, the schooners taking the course 
through Quick's Hole into Buzzards Bay.' 

In 1837 there was daily service of this line between New 
Bedford and Edgartown, which could only have been accom- 
plished by two boats leaving at the sam.e time, one from each 

'Crevecoeur, Lettres d'un Cultivateur Americain, p. 159. There is no reference 
to it in the County Records. 

^Kendall, " Travels," II, 199, 200. 

455 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

place. ^ The name of the first boat or the order of their runs 
on the route are not definitely known, and the most that can 
now be said is to give a list of the vessels which plied between 
the Vineyard and the mainland. The earliest known boat is 
the sloop Ann Eliza, Capt. John Merry, followed by the 
Eclipse, Capt. William Harding; Oliver Cromwell, Capt. 
Samuel Cromwell; Hero, Capt. Caleb Thaxter; Amethyst, 
Capt. William Harding, Jr.; Passport, Capt. Holmes W. 
Smith; Escort, Capt. H. L. Cleveland; a second Passport^ 
Capt. Frank Pease; schooner Independence, Capt. Grafton L. 
Daggett; Helen Snow, Capt. H. L. Cleveland; Abby B, Capt. 
Grafton L. Daggett. These boats carried both freight and 
passengers, and made such trips as could be made depending 
upon weather conditions, but it was a pretty hard storm which 
could keep them in port on Saturdays, when the homeward 
trip was due. 

THE STEAMBOAT SERVICE. 

When the first boat with steam power began to operate a 
stated service between the Vineyard and the mainland is not 
known, and being a private enterprise no records are left to 
tell the tale. That it began somewhere in the "thirties" is 
the testimony of those having recollections of the matter, and 
the first boat was called the Marco Bozzaris, commanded by 
Captain Barker, which made the run to and from New Bedford 
and Edgartown, touching at Homes Hole. She was followed 
by the Telegraph, with the same commander, and it should 
be said that Nantucket was made a part of the route of these 
steamers, the Vineyard being an intermediate port of call, 
as now. The next in point of sequence was the Massachusetts, 
Capt. Lot Phinney, master, which had the same run for a 
period, but later dropped Edgartown and only stopped at 
Homes Hole on her way between Nantucket and New Bedford. 
Passengers from Edgartown made connections with the boat 
by stages run by John Pease and J. A. Baylies. The next 
steamer was the George Law, and she was soon followed by 
the Naushon, built under the superintendence of the late Capt. 
Holmes W. Smith, for the run between the Vineyard and New 
Bedford, and she became a rival of the Massachusetts, which 
was kept for the Nantucket service.^ The Naushon was a 

*Devens, " Sketches of Martha's Vineyard, etc.," p. 9. 

^The Nantucket and Cape Cod Steamboat Co. was first organized to run between 
Nantucket and Hyannis. 











ifi'sc x^v 




THREE EARLIEST STEAM PACKETS 

VINEYARD-NANTUCKET ROUTE 
1818-1833 

From "The Story of the Island Steamers. " By permission of H. B. Turner. 



Travel and Taverns 

fast boat, and such was the rivalry of the two interests, that 
her captain had no regular times of leaving the Vineyard, but 
would wait till the Massachusetts hove in sight, and when she 
got about up to Hawes Shoal the Naushon would steam out 
and run for the wharf at Homes Hole to pick up the passen- 
gers ahead of the rival, and generally did the trick. The 
Nantucketers called the Edgartowners ''Old Town Turkies," 
an allusion to the frequency of herrings in the diet of the people 
of Edgartown, and the Nantucketers were called "Scraps" 
on account of the whaling phrase "blubber scraps." One 
day, as was the custom, a race was on between the two down 
from New Bedford, and the Massachusetts burnt tar to force 
speed, but the Natishon passed her rival as they rounded East 
Chop, and the steward of the latter hoisted a herring on a 
pole as a pennant of victory.^ The next steamer was the 
Metacomet, a new boat one hundred and seventy feet long and 
of three hundred and ninety-five tons burthen, and she arrived 
in Edgartown harbor for the first time on Sept. 28, 1854, 
under the command of Capt. Benjamin Simmons. It does not 
appear that she continued long on this route as she was not 
in service after 1856, and her place was probably taken by the 
Canonicus, which is the next in point of time to make the run 
to the Vineyard. How long she remained in service is not 
known to the author, but she soon had a sister boat to take 
care of the growing traffic. The Eagle's Wing was built in 
1854, of four hundred tons burthen, at a cost of $52,000, and 
was at once placed on this route as an alternate boat with the 
Canonicus and Metacomet. She was under the command of 
the late Capt. Benjamin C. Cromwell, and made tri-weekly 
trips between New Bedford and the Vineyard, leaving Edgar- 
town on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 9 a.m. She 
continued in service until burned in Providence river July 24, 
1 86 1, and a new boat was immediately provided for to ac- 
commodate increasing travel. This new boat was named the 
Monohansett, after one of the small islands in the Elizabeth 
group, and her name awakens in every Vincyarder affectionate 
recollections of a staunch craft that carried thousands of our 
island people to and fro in their journeys without a mishap. 
The steamer Monohansett was built at the yard of Thomas 
Collier in New York for what is now the New Bedford, Mar- 

^The Naushon was sold to the New York Herald about 1848 and renamed the 
Newsboy. 



457 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

tha's Vineyard & Nantucket Steamboat Company. She was 
begun in January, 1862, and finished in May of the same year, 
the work being carried on under the supervision of Capt. 
Benjamin C. Cromwell of Vineyard Haven, her designer. 
Her dimensions were: length, 182 feet; beam, 2S feet; depth 
nine feet six inches; her registered tonnage, 489 gross. 

The Monohansett took her place on the Vineyard route 
in the summer of 1862, and made her first trip to Edgartown 
June I. August 13 she was chartered by the United States 
for thirty-five days for $500 a day. October i she returned to 
these waters and resumed her place on the Vineyard route, 
remaining until Aug. 23, 1863, when she was again chartered 
to the government for service in the department of the South. 
She was used on the Potomac, carried troops to Newbern and 
Hilton Head in the Carolinas, plied on the James river, and 
from August, 1864, until the close of the war was headquarters 
boat at City Point. During that period she was used by 
General Grant as a dispatch boat. In the summer of 1874, 
when Grant, then president, made his visit to our island, 
it was the Monohansett which carried him up from Cottage 
City. Since the war, the Monohansett spent most of her time 
on the Vineyard route, although at different periods she plied 
between Boston and Provincetown, Plymouth and Marblehead; 
carried excursionists from Harlem to Coney Island and Rock- 
away, and ran between Greenport, Long Island, and New 
London. 

Her home was, however, on the route for which she was 
designed, and when in 1901, she was sold to do duty in her old 
age in alien waters, she promptly ran ashore and died of a 
broken back and doubtless a broken heart. Every islander, 
who has at some time in his life been carried to the Vineyard 
in this famous craft, will be glad to look upon the picture of 
the old Monohansett as she appeared when she made her last 
trip on this route. Hundreds greeted her as she swung out 
for the last time from the wharves of Edgartown, Oak Bluffs, 
and Vineyard Haven. 

Increase of travel, especially in the summer season, as 
the Vineyard came to be known as a resort, necessitated ad- 
ditional transportation facilities, and the Martha^s Vineyard, 
515 tons, built in Brooklyn in 1871, came on this route. She 
alternated with the Monohansett until 1886, when the further 
demands of the traveling public required another steamer to 
care for the growing summer traffic. The Nantucket was 

458 




Pi 



X 



O Q 

^ £ 

<; o 

o ,^ 

o g 



Travel and Taverns 

built that year in Wilmington, Delaware, of 629 tons burthen, 
and was operated in conjunction with the older vessels. 
In 1 89 1, another boat was added to the line, called the Gay 
Head, still larger, being of 701 tons burthen, and built in 
Philadelphia. She has been used almost exclusively for the 
summer business of the company. The latest addition is the 
Uncatena, of 652 tons burthen, built at Wilmington in 1902, 
and named for one of the islands of the Elizabeth group. 
These last four named are now in active service throughout 
the year, according to the requirements of summer and winter 
travel, on the old packet route between the Vineyard and New 
Bedford, and extending to our neighboring island. The 
regular trips are daily round trips between Edgartown, Oak 
Bluffs, Vineyard Haven, and New Bedford, while the summer 
season brings all the vessels into service to fill a schedule w^hich 
calls for four trips each day between the points mentioned. 

For a number of years, about 1890-2, a small steamer was 
chartered each summer to run between Vineyard Haven, West 
Chop, and Woods Hole, to accommodate the local travel at 
those points, but the plan was abandoned after several years' 
trial. This, however, is the natural route of travel from the 
Vineyard to the mainland, and this short and easy trip will be, 
without doubt, the next step in the development of travel 
facilities for the population of this island, a return to the first 
plan of Isaac Chase, the original ferryman of the Vineyard. 

STEAM RAILROAD. 

This subject would not be complete without reference to 
our only railroad, though now but two lines of rust indicate 
its location and existence. It was built as a feeder for the 
Old Colony Railroad Co., and was laid from Oak Bluffs 
wharf to Edgartown village and thence on to Katama. The 
first train of cars drawn by a locomotive was run over this 
road Aug. 22, 1874, and it was in operation for about fifteen 
years. It was then abandoned, and the right of way and 
property has been sold. 

COUNTY HIGHWAYS. 

Travel between the towns, as population increased and 
new settlements developed, required the establishment of 
roads throughout the island under the jurisdiction of the 
county authorities. The contour of the island and the lay 

459 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

of the towns made it necessary to establish three great high- 
ways to connect the settlements of Edgartown, Tisbury, 
and Homes Hole. 

The first road to be laid out or traveled was the "Mill 
Path" connecting the settlement at Great Harbor with the 
mill set up on the "river" in Takemmy. This path doubt- 
less followed the old Indian trail between Nunnepog and 
Takemmy, skirting the heads of the inlets on the south shore. 
This "path" was probably in existence long before the pur- 
chase of the four associates in 1669, and is the oldest county 
highway on the island. It did not follow originally the exact 
line of the present road, which was laid out in the last century, 
but ran the same course substantially. The continuation 
of it beyond old Mill River to the "School House Path" of 
early times, and the south road in Chilmark, makes the high- 
way of travel from Edgartown to Gay Head. 

The "Old Town" or "Ferry" road from Edgartown 
to Homes Hole came into existence in 1700 as a result of a 
presentment by the Grand Jury indicting the county for 
neglect to provide a way. The court record reads as follows: 

Ordered that whereas the grand jury hath presented this County for 
want of a convenient Roade from Edgartown to The fery at homes hole 
the Court appoynt Left Isaac Chase and Left Samuell Sarson to view and 
consider where there may be a convenient way layd out to sd homses 
hole and make return to the Court to be holden in March next.' 

Some sort of a road was then laid out, probably a cart 
path staked off and cleared. 

In October, 1760, in response to "sundry requests," 
a committee was appointed to investigate the condition of 
this highway, and on Jan. 20, 1773, a committee of five, ap- 
pointed by the Court of Comm.on Pleas, made report of a 
new survey and layout of this old road.^ 

The "Homes Hole Road" designates an old county 
highway leading from West Tisbury to Homes Hole. It 
was scarcely more than a "path" for carts, and is first men- 
tioned in 1 70 1, though it had been existing, probably, from 
the date of settlement of West Tisbury. The exact course 
of it cannot be determined, as there never was an official sur- 
vey, but it followed in a general direction the road which 
now leads from West Tisbury, through Middletown to Lam- 

'Dated Oct. i, 1700. Court Records, Vol. I. 
^Ibid., C. C. P., under date above given. 

460 



Travel and Taverns 

bert's Cove, thence across the Chickemmoo region to the 
existing state highway, west of the head of Tashmoo. In 
December, 1770, a number of the inhabitants of Tisbury 
petitioned for the official layout and acceptance of this road. 
The recently constructed state highway connecting Tisbury, 
West Tisbury and Chilmark follows, in part, the old roads 
laid out two centuries ago between these towns. 

OLD TAVERN DAYS ON THE VINEYARD. 

Wlioe'er has travelled life's dull round 

Where e'er his stages may have been 
May sigh to think he still has found 

The warmest welcome at an inn. 

Shenstone. 

Under the colonial laws of Massachusetts each town was 
obliged to keep a "house of entertainment" for the convenience 
of strangers, and in 1656 each town was made liable for not 
keeping an "ordinary," as taverns were called in those days. 
The Vineyard, being a practically independent political colony 
until it came under the jurisdiction of New York, was not sub- 
ject to this law of the Massachusetts colony, yet our island 
more nearly reflected the customs and spirit of Puritan Massa- 
chusetts than the roystering liberalism of the duke's New 
York province. Being out of the line of travel, there was not 
so much demand for public houses on the Vineyard as in towns 
situated on the king's highways, but when a stranger happened 
to arrive on the Vineyard the necessity of a tavern for his 
comfort and entertainment existed in greater relative propor- 
tion than on the mainland, for his only other resource was to 
proceed on to Nantucket or retrace his steps to America, 
unless charitable people opened their private houses and gave 
him bed and board. ^ 

As years went on intercourse with the Vineyard increased, 
and travelers came down on horseback from Boston by the 
old "bay path" through Braintree, Scituate, Plymouth, and 
Sandwich to Falmouth, and at each town they found a con- 
venient tavern except at Falmouth. Not until 1665, was the 
want in the last-named town remedied.^ This ordinary was 

*Rev. Michael Wigglesworth, in 1653, records in his diary a storm-bound deten- 
tion at the Vineyard, en route, New London to Boston, and that he found "a safe 
harbor in friends houses during that long storm." 

^On February 7th of that year Mr. Isaac Robinson was licensed to keep an or- 
dinary in Falmouth. 

461 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

probably located at or near Wood's Hole, the landing-place 
for the ferry which plied between the Vineyard and the Cape. 
The frequent and natural choice of the locations of a tavern 
was at a ferry landing, and usually one person combined the 
duties of ferryman and innkeeper. 

The first record of any legislation regarding taverns on 
the Vineyard is found in the "General Laws," made at the 
first General Court held at Edgartown, June i8, 1672, after 
the island had become a part of the duke's New York govern- 
ment. The following is the law: — 

Any Quarter Court shall have Power to Grant License unto such as 
they shall think fitt to keep a House of Publick Entertainment, to sell 
Liquor, Wine, Beer or any like Strong Drink by Retail with such Limita- 
tion and Custom as to such court shall think meet. 

The license to keep an ordinary did not carry with it the 
permission to sell "strong drink," and a separate one was 
required for that purpose. It is needless to add that the inn- 
keeper provided himself with this valuable authority to fur- 
nish entertainment for his guests. This often resulted in 
disorderly occurrences in the tap rooms of the taverns, and on 
Oct. 28, 1675, the Quarter Court found it necessary to pass 
a law covering promiscuous sale of strong drink in these public 
houses. It reads thus : — 

If any person shall be found in drinke at any publique House of 
entertainment, if the master of such house cannot make it appear that 
such person had not the drinke at their house he shall be fined ten shilHngs 
to the treasurie. 

Special laws were also made regarding the sale of strong 
drink to the Indians, the penalty for which was made sufii- 
ciently large to act as a restraining influence against this traffic. 
Many, however, could not resist the temptation of profit^ 
and the early court records abound in frequent entries of the 
infliction of the penalty on those who transgressed the statu- 
tory enactment. 

Not all the towns availed themselves of the privilege of a 
licensed inn, however, for in 1692 we read that "some Towns 
thinck it inconvenient to have such houses," a condition which 
prevailed in Chilmark, for example, and provisions for the sale 
of liquor by private persons was made in consequence. 

It is probable that the early taverns of the Vineyard were 
not houses specially constructed for that use, but were the 

462 



Travel and Taverns 

dwelling houses of the owners, of which a spare room or two 
were available for the transient guest, with probably an ad- 
joining building or "leanto" used as a store and tap room 
where the guests could sit on the ''bench" and smoke, drink, 
and play cards, and hear the village gossip from the convivial 
patrons of this portion of the ordinary, who resorted there 
nightly for these comforts and consolations, 

"Where graybeard mirth and smiling toil retired.'" 

It is doubtful if any of them were distinguished by such pic- 
turesque and fanciful names as were applied to many of the 




JOSEPH CLAGHORN'S TAVERN SIGN, 

HOMES HOI,E. 
1792 

early colonial taverns, a custom derived from our English 
progenitors. It would be interesting to know that Chase's 
ferry tavern was called the Quaker's Hat, that Cathcart's was 
the Beehive, or that Worth's was the Spouting Whale, but 
it is safe to infer that they were simply known as ''Chase's," 
"Cathcart's," and "Worth's." 

'In 1783, either in a burst of official activity or a wave of morality, nearly all of 
the innkeepers on the island were "pulled" with many of their guests for permitting 
and playing "at an unlawful game with cards;" but each indictment was quashed, 
and that ended the raid on our taverns. 



463 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

The taverns had in them much of that on which we can 
dwell with affectionate interest. The convivial phase was only 
incidental to their better features. They were always provided 
with a latch-string hung out for every belated traveler. "A 
house of sin, you may call it," says old Bishop Earle, "but 
not a house of darkness, for the candles are never out." The 
sentimental memories which cluster around these historic inns 
is rather one of good cheer, warm hospitality, and a mug of 
hot flip as a fitting close to a day's sojourn with Widow Chase 
at Homes Hole or Widow S arson at Edgar town. 

ISIany of the picturesque features of the taverns on the 
mainland which were situated on the great highways of travel 
were lacking to the hostelries of the Vineyard. No stage 
coaches drawn by four horses came dashing up the road to 
crack of whip and sound of horn, reining up in front to leave 
letters and passengers, exchange horses for the next lap in the 
route, and to patronize the table and tap room. But what 
they lacked in the romantic they made up in the comforts so 
grateful to travelers. We can picture to ourselves the clean- 
sanded floor of the living room, and the chamber with its high 
"four poster," the feather bed with snowy linen, clean, but 
oh so cold! pillows of down, counterpane of blue and white, 
all crowned with curtains of dimity or the more pretentious 
damask. But they are all gone. The past holds them in 
scant and loosening grasp. With them went the landlord of 
song and story. He deserves more than can be said of him 
here and now, but we will close the scene with his last encomium, 
the epitaph, as it was written of John Doggett, a native of the 
Vineyard, who dispensed tavern hospitality in his later days. 

Traveller! 

If ever dram to thee was dear, 
Drop on John Doggetts grave a Tear, 

Who when alive so well did Tend 
The Rich, the Poor, the Foe, the Friend: 

To every knock, and every call 
He said "I'm coming," unto all. 

At length Death knocks! poor Doggett cry'd 
And said, "I'm coming. Sir!" and Dyed. 

Further references to the taverns of ancient days in the 
several towns will be found in the histories of each, and if 
the reader at this time wishes to pursue this subject to its 
local surroundings, he may turn thereto and go with the author 
as he makes the rounds of the old taverns in each of the Vine- 

464 



Travel and Taverns 

yard towns, where both shall be their guest for a sufficient 
space to know their names and find brief entertainment as 
well as rest, for Combe says: — 

How oft doth man by care oppressed 
Find in an inn a place of rest. 

TELEGRAPHS, CABLES, AND TELEPHONES. 

Allied to the subject of travel is that of communication 
between the island and the mainland in the early days, and 
its later development. Over a century ago there was a system 
of telegraphy in operation from the Vineyard to Boston, by 
means of signal stations on the hills along the coast, by way 
of Falmouth, Sandwich, Plymouth, Marshfield, and thence to 
Scituate and Hull.^ The following advertisement appeared 
in the Salem Gazette of Sept. 14, 1802: — 

• TELEGRAPHE. 

Merchants and others concerned in Navigation are respectfully in- 
formed, That the subscriber will recommence the operation of his Tele- 
graphe by the first of October next. All persons who may wish to obtain 
by the Telegraphe, or by the Telegraphe and by the Mail, first intelli- 
gence of arrivals at the Vineyard — or of arrivals at foreign ports — or 
who may wish to pass orders directing a vessel at the Vineyard to sail 
from thence to any particular port — or to wait there for further orders — 
or who may wish to learn the contents of a cargo — or whether a friend 
is on board of a particular vessel here, &c &c. may be accommodated. 

The terms are lodged (for the convenience of all concerned) at the 
Post Offices in Boston, Salem, Newburyport, Portsmouth and Portland, 
and will be lodged at the Post Ofl&ce of any other port, if desired. Agents 
are appointed in all the ports named above, to accommodate such as may 
wish for immediate intelligence from the Vineyard. 

The terms contain different rates of fees. — If a man applies for first 
intelligence of an arrival at the Vineyard, by the 20th of September inst. 
or three weeks before the day of such arrival, HE shall have such intelli- 
gence at the lowest rate. An applicant has nothing to pay until the Pro- 
prietor or his Agents shall announce first intelligence of an arrival or 
other first intelligence desired. 

Masters of Vessels will enter their arrivals at the Vineyard free of 
any expense, that the Proprietor (and owners, if they please) may have 
immediate knowledge of such arrivals. 

JONATHAN GROUT, Patentee 
Boston, September 14, 1802. 

It is not known how early this "telegraphe" system had 
been in operation before 1802, as it appears by the notice that 

'Sandwich has a "Telegraph Hill" in its limits. 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

it was a re-establishment of one in previous use. The char- 
acter of it may be surmised as a combination of the semaphore 
and flag system, with a signal code devised by the "patentee." 
It is an indication of the importance of the Vineyard at that 
period in mercantile and maritime circles. 

For a number of years a semaphore staff signal service 
was in operation between this island and Nantucket (about 
1845), the staff being erected on Sampson's Hill, Chappa- 
quiddick, and later on the Highlands of East Chop. The 
introduction of the magnetic telegraph and the development 
of the same for ocean service by cables brought this primitive 
method into disuse. In 1857 a submarine cable was laid by 
Mr. S. C. Bishop, between Nantucket and the Vineyard, via 
Maddaket and Tuckernuck. It was not successful, though 
irregular service was rendered by it, when it was in repair. 
After four years of interrupted operation, through repeated 
breaks, it was, in 1861, abandoned as a means of communi- 
cation. The U. S. Signal Service of the government, to perfect 
its work of forecasting the weather, laid a cable from Nan- 
tucket to the Vineyard, and thence by Cedar Tree Neck 
across the Sound to the Elizabeth Islands, and on to Wood's 
Hole. This was completed in November, 1885, and ofhces 
for the local officials were opened in Oak Bluffs in May, 
1886, in Edgartown in June, 1886, and in Vineyard Haven in 
November, 1886, and the public were accorded the privilege 
of using the wires for the transmission of private despatches, 
when not in use for government work. The cable was so 
frequently broken by the anchors of vessels riding in the Sound 
that deeper water was found necessary, and in June, 1888, a 
new cable was laid across from Gay Head to Naush®n. At 
this same time the Edgartown office was abandoned and re- 
established at Gay Head. The Oak Bluffs office was only 
kept open for one year (1886), and with the abandonment of 
Gay Head, likewise, Vineyard Haven became the sole station 
on the island. This office was successively in charge of 
H. H. Curley, Max Wagner (later First Lieutenant, U. S. V., 
killed in the Philippines, 1900), and William W. Neifert, all 
of the general service. The office at Vineyard Haven was 
discontinued June i, 1900, and the lines bought by the Martha's 
Vineyard Telegraph Company. 

In 1887 the Bell Telephone system was installed on the 
Vineyard, and several years later an independent line was 
established by Dr. C. F. Lane; both are now in operation. 

466 



Travel and Taverns 

Long distance service was perfected in 1902 by the first-named 
company, and communication with all points reached by them 
may be held. 




^aMi% fx arloorii CruyLZO 
OUR EARLIEST FERRY. 

S.BPRESENTATION OF INDIANS CROSSING VINEYARD SOUND IN A CANOE 
MADE BY BURNING OUT A TRUNK OF A TREE. 

(From an early map.) 



467 



History of Martha*s Vineyard 



CHAPTER XXX. 

Life in the Vineyard Towns During Colonial Times. 

from the cradle to the grave. 

The history of the making of a nation or a land does not 
consist entirely of a recital of its political relations, a story of 
its wars, or a description of its material wealth and the develop- 
ment of its natural resources. The story of the English race 
is not alone a tale of its civil and foreign wars, the heroic deeds 
of its kings and nobles, nor the prowess of its arms on sea 
or land. These considerations, of course, have their place 
in the story of a nation's growth; but above all the simple 
tale of the people themselves, of the ways in which they lived, 
the houses they occupied, the things that clothed them, the 
articles that fed them, the implements employed in their 
daily existence, — in brief, the domestic life of the people is 
of even greater interest than the political or the military. 
Politics and wars occupy but a small part of the life of the 
people, while the social side is of ever present interest and 
importance in the development of the characteristics of a race. 
The subject which can be touched upon only in a fragmentary 
way, owing to the infinite details which enter into a discussion 
of this sort, relates to the life of our ancestors during the first 
century or more of their existence on this island, and it is based 
largely upon studies of the early records of the Vineyard. 
If not an exciting tale, it will at least have the merit of resting 
on a good foundation. 

The conditions of life which obtained on this island 
were not in any sense at great variance from that lived by 
colonists in other sections of New England, but certain local 
conditions obtained which had a particular significance and 
effect not found elsewhere. We shall briefly see in the cursory 
view which we can take in the limited space at disposal how 
the people here in colonial times lived and died, and may be 
able, after a review of their surrounding circumstances, to 
gain a clearer insight into the daily life that obtained in that 
period. 

The people who settled this island were of pure English 
stock, almost without exception, and the life which they led 

468 



Life in Vineyard Towns During Colonial Times 

here was that of the yeomanry of England at the same period, 
modified only by local circumstances and that absence of 
class distinction which formed the basis of the social fabric 
in the mother country. It was a democracy of the simplest 
type, at first, strongly tinged with a theocratic character, which 
affected a return to the Mosaic forms of law and morals, 
but there was little display on the Vineyard of that extreme 
kind of intolerance which was peculiar to the Puritan of 
Massachusetts. These early islanders brought with them 
their English customs, lore, and ideals, and in their own way 
applied them to their changed surroundings. 

THE FAMILY. 

The institution of marriage as a part of the social system 
was separated as far as possible from any relation with the 
Church. It was held to be a purely civil institution, which 
could be completed by civil magistrates as well as by an or- 
dained minister. This had been the policy adopted by the 
colonists of Massachusetts Bay, as a part of their plan of 
freedom from religious customs and rites, and it was fol- 
lowed by the people of the Vineyard with consistent adhesion 
to extreme Protestant views. Hence we see that the solemn 
act of matrimony, the keystone of our social system, was 
performed by a Justice of the Peace or an esquire, with as 
much frequency as the village parson. 

It was a part of this system in colonial times for the per- 
sons intending marriage to give notice of same to the town 
clerk some time in advance, usually two weeks, and this official 
was required to post a public notice of such intention, in order 
that objections might be made if any one held them. Besides 
this formality, the banns were read in the meeting-house on 
Sundays on consecutive weeks, and if no one appeared to 
forbid the banns the last obstacle to the consummation of 
the hopes of two fond hearts was removed. 

It was the custom in the colonial days for the bride's 
father to give her a "marriage portion" or dower, and this 
was usually in the form of a lot of land for a homestead. Often 
this was held to be her share in her father's estate, and wOls 
frequently referred to this as a reason for small bequests to 
those children who had married. In some instances the son 
Vv-as started in life in the same manner as the daughter, and 
an example of these arrangements is seen in the indenture 

469 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

made between Benjamin Norton of Edgartown and Joshua 
Daggett of the same place, on the occasion of the marriage 
of Nicholas Norton to Martha Daggett. Benjamin Norton 
agrees to give his son two ten-acre lots and some meadow, and 
Joshua agrees to give his daughter the value of £2^ in estate.^ 
But this dower was not always forthcoming and the lack of 
it was the origin of a custom which it is to be hoped was more 
honored in the breach than in the observance. The dowerless 
bride was held to be naked of this world's goods, and as a 
penalty or reminder of her unfortunate state was obliged to 
be married in a semi-nude condition. These were known as 
"Shift marriages," sometimes called also "Smock marriages," 
for the reason that the woman was clad only in a chemise or 
smock. This kind of a marriage w^as reserved by law and 
custom for widows. By it the new husband was relieved of 
any debts of his predecessor, and began life with his widow- 
bride free from incumbrances. It was the custom for the 
woman thus clad to cross the king's highway and then be 
married. An instance is recorded in the records of Edgar- 
town in 1757: "Elijah Webster of Lebanon and Elizabeth 
Trapp of Edgartown were married March 28, 1757. The said 
Elizabeth appearing naked excepting her shift at the time of 
marriage."^ It seems scarcely credible that such a proceeding 
could have taken place in a civilized community as late as 
1757, and yet it was not an uncommon event in other parts of 
New England until the beginning of the 19th century, and 
one occurred in England in i860! These sacrifices of modesty 
to the cupidity of the new husband for the purpose of evading 
debts were an old English custom. It is believed, and so we 
hope, that they took place after dark, but we can imagine that 
there was little of gayety about a wedding for a woman like 
Elizabeth Trapp who had to parade across the highway on a 
cold March night, thinly clad in her chemise as a preliminary 
requirement. Another form of shift marriage was this: 
The bride was immured in a closet, disrobed during the cere- 
mony, her hand thrust out of it as the door was held sufficiently 
ajar to permit this portion of her body to take part in the 
sacred rite of matrimony. 

It was not till well into the i8th century that marriages 
were solemnized by clergymen almost exclusively. It took 
our forefathers here and elsewhere over a century to make this 

^\greement dated Aug. 4, 1709, Dukes Deeds, II, 257. 
\ -Edgartown Vital Records, p. 185. 

470 



Life in Vineyard Towns During Colonial Times 

concession to the church and religion. Ministers were never 
licensed to solemnize marriages in Plymouth Colony, and in 
Massachusetts, previous to the union in 1692, the magistrates 
retained this office in their own hands with peculiar jealousy. 
In 1647 the Rev. Peter Hobart of Hingman was invited by 
one of his own church, who was about to be married in Boston, 
to accompany him and preach on the occasion. But the 
magistrates being informed of the circumstances forbade it. 
In their veto, one reason assigned was, "We are not willing 
to bring in the English custom of Ministers performing the 
solemnity of marriage, vvhich Sermons at such times might 
induce."^ 

CHRISTENINGS. 

The advent of a child into the family circle was accom- 
plished through the friendly supervision of the neighborhood 
midwife, and the kindly assistance of sympathetic matrons, 
as there was not at call in the early days the skilled physician 
to preside over such functions. If the event was a safe delivery 
of the mother and child, the next thing in the order of time 
was the care of the infant's spiritual welfare. Except in the 
Anabaptist, or pedo-baptist families, it was the custom to 
bring the child to baptism, usually within seven days after its 
birth, but this privilege was only extended to the children of 
persons actually comprised in its covenanted membership. It 
sometimes happened that only one of the parents was in "full 
communion" with the church, and the child was baptized 
as the daughter, for instance, of Jane, the wife of John Brown, 
the father not being a member of the flock. The older divines 
held in the first coming over to New England, that none but 
children of "visible saints" should receive this rite, but in the 
course of time those outside the church were so numerous 
that it was found that this practice was leaving the majority 
of the children without baptism. When Parson Homes took 
charge of the Chilmark parish, in 171 5, he found but two 
male members on the books. The large proportion of adults 
attended public worship, but they were not accounted members, 
although they had been baptized in childhood. It would seem 
that the Vineyard churches held quite strictly to the stringent 
rules of this practice, for the church records of all show the 
admission of parents to membership, immediately followed by 

'Winthrop, Journal, II, 314. 

471 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

the baptism of all their children, in a bunch, some well along 
in their ''teens," who had thus been deprived of the rites in 
their infancy. This is not the place to discuss the intricacies 
of the measures adopted by the different church synods to 
meet this condition, particularly the "Half Way Covenant," 
designed for the benefit of those who had been baptized, but 
who had not "owned the covenant." Should their children 
be baptized? The question split the churches, and there 
began the cleavage between the liberal and orthodox elements, 
which kept the ecclesiastical fires burning fiercely for a century. 
However, having got our child baptized somehow, we will now 
consider his environment as he progresses through life. 

PRIMOGENITURE. 

In the family the eldest son was accorded special considera- 
tion on account of primogeniture, and this had not only a 
social but a financial advantage. As an indication of this posi- 
tion held by the first born may be cited the gift by John Butler 
to his two sons, Gamaliel and Malachi of a pew in the Edgar- 
town meeting house. He provided that "the said Gamaliel 
being Eldest to have the highest or upper end of said Pew and 
said Malachi being younger shall have the lowest end."^ In 
material value, when the father's estate came to be divided, a 
double portion became his. For example, if there were five 
children, the property would be divided into six parts, of which 
the eldest son would be awarded two. A knowledge of this 
will help to settle many disputed questions of heirship and 
children. 

SOCIAL DISTINCTIONS. 

In colonial times there were well-recognized class dis- 
tinctions, of which evidences are found in our records similar 
to those observed in other colonies. These related primarily 
to the same standards respecting quality and birth as obtained 
in Old England. The ruling family on the island, the May- 
hews, were probably descendants of a cadet branch of an 
armigerous family, as elsewhere related, and the head of it 
was called Thomas Mayhew, Esquire, and when referred to 
in his official capacity was called "Worshipful." Ofificial posi- 
tions also created social distinctions for the holder, if he was 

'Dukes Deeds, VI, 85, dated May 3, 1732. 
472 



Life in Vineyard Towns During Colonial Times 

not already distinguished by right of birth. The next in social 
scale were given the prefix of Mister, or more properly Master, 
and whenever this appears it can be taken for granted that it 
was not bestowed by accident or in the manner in vogue at 
the present time. It meant that the person was of gentle birth, 
or a scion of a family established in learning or politics. The 
next lowest in the scale were given the title of "Goodman," 
while the consort was known as "Good wife," or in the abbre- 
viated form of "Goody." This class represented the large 
body of the people known as the yeomanry or peasantry in 
England. The lowest in the social grade were without dis- 
tinction or prefix, and appear in the records as John Smith 
or William Brown. This, however, cannot be universally 
applied, as much depended upon the clerk recording minutes 
of the meetings of the inhabitants, or other official proceedings. 
An instance of this is found in a curious fall in the social scale 
of Thomas Burchard of Edgartown, who was "Mr." in 1653, 
"Goodman" in 1663, and plain Thomas Burchard in 1673, 
when he was in disfavor with the Mayhew regime, and the 
clerk making the entry a partisan of that family. 

These distinctions were maintained in all walks of life, 
religious and secular, until the period of the Revolution, when 
the leveling of all ranks to a common basis was enunciated 
in the Declaration of Independence, and all men were declared 
as "born free and equal." Since that time everybody has 
become an esquire and a "Mister." 

At feasts and at funerals, in those days, there was alike a 
recognition of ranks and orders. Sewall tells us how ministers, 
magistrates, and distinguished strangers were disposed at the 
dinner table, and how the viands and beverages of the feast 
were sorted to suit the company, according to social rank. 
The wives partook of the status of the husband and were called 
Mistress, Goodwife, or plain Sarah Brown, and in like manner, 
sons and daughters of these respective parents held the quality 
of their fathers and mothers. Clergyman, of whatever pre- 
vious rank, were accorded special distinction on account of 
their superior learning and were always classed as of the first 
grade in the social scale. 

DIVORCES. 

Dissolution of the marriage tie was extremely rare on the 
island for the first hundred years of its existence, and for that 
matter, during the century following. Only two cases have 

473 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

come to the notice of the author within the first named period. 
The first case in the jurisdiction of the colony of the Massa- 
chusetts Bay was heard in 1636, but it was not until 1670 that 
our first case occurred. This was that of James SkifT vs. 
Elizabeth Skiff, the charge being desertion.^ James Skiff had 
recently come from Sandwich to settle in the new township of 
Takemmy, being one of the four original patentees, while his 
wife had run away with another man "for to be her husband." 
The following is the record of the decree of divorce : — 

August 3 1670 att the Vineyard: 

Att a General Court held upon the Vinyard To his Ma'tie our 
sov'r lord the Kinge: 

Whereas James Skifife, late inhabitant of Sandwich, but now att the 
Vineyard, hath petitioned and sued for bill of divorce from his wife: where- 
upon this p'sent Court hath taken it into serious consideration and having 
received sufficient testimony that the late wife of James Skiffe hath un- 
lawfully forsaken her lawful husband, James Skifife, and is gone to Roanoke, 
in or att Virginia, and there hath taken another man for to be husband 
and wee having received several testimonies of it: 

Therefore know all men by these p'sents that the authoritie of this 
Court hath granted unto the said James Skiffe a lawfull of divorce from 
the former woman, namely Elizabeth the daughter of Mr Neighbor Cooper, 
inhabitant of Boston: that James Skiffe is free from the aforesaid woman, 
which was his lawfull wife: and that the aforesaid covenant of marriage 
is now dissolved and of noe affect. 

THOMAS DOGED, 
clarke to the Court att the Vineyard 

HOUSES. 

The dwellings were probably log huts at first, built in 
the manner of construction familiar to all. The cracks and 
chinks were daubed with clay and the roof covered with salt 
hay laid in the form of a thatch. In the early divisions of 
land in Edgartown there were "thatch lots" set apart for each 
of the proprietor's holdings, and they were held as such and 
passed from owner to owner under this designation as late as 
1680. The inflammable and unclean character of this material 
rendered it unsafe and unsanitary, and so soon as a carpenter 
was added to the list of mechanics in the community wooden 

^She was daughter of James Neighbor, a cooper of Boston, and she had eloped 
with William Wills who, in 1672, was living in Carolina. (Savage, Gen. Diet., Ill, 
267.) 

In 1750 Capt. Timothy Daggett of Edgartown was granted a legal separation 
and maintenance from his wife, if she refused to return to his bed and board. (Dukes 
Co. Court Records.) 

474 



Life in Vineyard Towns During Colonial Times 

shingles were split or hewn out of the logs and superseded the 
old thatches. These shingles were fastened on with wooden 
pegs at first, and later as the village smithy appeared on the 
scene wrought-iron nails were pounded out by hand, and a 
more permanent covering secured for their habitations. 

Of course the houses were single storied — most of them 
of the "low double" variety — and at first they had mud 
chimneys, held by straw bonds, baked by the sun or at least 
roughly made by a crude kiln capable of making but a few 
bricks at a time. Clay pits were of considerable value, and 
usually when one was found it was reserved for a general tovv-n 
use. The first mention found of a brick kiln is about 1700 
at Chickemmoo, but undoubtedly one must have existed before 
that. A chimney is mentioned as early as 1659. 

For windows it is not probable that glass was at first ob- 
tainable by the early settlers. It is mentioned as early as 
1652, in connection with the construction of a church for the 
Indians in the items of allowances for expenses. The first 
means of letting in light was by the use of oiled paper set in 
frames by which they secured translucency but not transpar- 
ency. As a substitute bleached linen cloth was sometimes 
employed for the purpose. Glass had to be imported from 
England, and was in small panes affixed usually by leads within 
a wooden sash operated on hinges. 

The village smithy furnished the simple hardware trim- 
mings for the house, such as hinges and bolts or latches — 
they WTre crude affairs laboriously pounded out of iron and 
made to do duty in absence of other better "fixins" imported 
from England or found in Boston. 

Fire places constituted the only means of hea,ting houses. 
Stoves, air-tight and otherwise, are modern abominations. 
The general fuel was wood at first, but peat was used as a 
substitute later in some places. Peat is mentioned as early as 
1788, and is still used by some of the inhabitants of Gay 
Head. 

HOUSEHOLD FURNISHINGS. 

Chamber furniture. — The bed was always the centre of 
interest and importance in the chamber, being a tall posted 
structure reaching to the ceiling, and the bed raised high from 
the floor. The feather bed held a place of honor from the 
first years of the settlement to a time in the recollection of 
some of our oldest inhabitants. These were dressed with 

475 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

pillows, encased in "beers" and bolsters, similarly covered, 
both of which were filled with the same material, soft downy 
feathers from the goose. The sheets were both of cotton and 
linen, and the four posts were draped with valances. One 
inventory shows a bed with "Curttains & Valence" as early 
as 1665, together with a carpet on the floor. This same gen- 
tleman indulged in "Venus" or looking glasses, chests of 
drawers with sundry "fine linnen," and other evidences of 
gentility somewhat unusual. Beds were among the most val- 
uable possessions of the settlers, and they were specifically 
mentioned as bequests in wills, usually among the first articles 
to be given to this or that favorite child. An idea of their 
relative value may be gained from the appraisements of the 
estates of the first comers. In 1665 one was valued at six 
pounds, equal in our money at the present time at least $125, 
and another, with blankets and coverlid, at double that sum 
in our money. In 171 5 five beds belonging to Simon Athearn 
were valued at $1000 in our present money, an average of 
$200 each, or the then value of a pair of oxen, or a good young 
horse. The warming pan, a device for heating their beds, 
was brought by them from England, where it had been long 
in use. In the old "Babees Book," we read the advice to 
"put of your clothes in winter by the fireside, and cause your 
bed to bee heated with a warming panne." The earliest men- 
tion of them is in 1665, valued at ten shillings. A white 
blanket was priced at sixteen shillings five pence in 1669, 
or about twenty dollars of our present money. 

UTENSILS. 

Most all of the domestic utensils for household use were 
of brass, copper, or iron. Brass kettles, copper pots, and iron 
skillets made up the list of articles available for the colonial 
housewife in her kitchen. Dining dishes were generally of 
pewter, comprising platters, porringers, saucers, and mugs, 
while occasional pieces of "Chany," Holland or Old English 
crockery were displayed on the trenchers of the upper classes, 
as evidences of wealth or taste. Table cloths and napkins 
are mentioned in 1665, and the inventory of one prominent 
townsman of Tisbury included the following luxuries in house- 
hold furnishings for his table: 4 table cloths, 23 napkins, i 
silver tankard, 6 silver spoons, i silver cup, i chafing dish, 
and I silver porringer. 

476 



Life in Vineyard Towns During Colonial Times 

The early settlers probably had little employment for 
artificial lights. Life was not strenuous then, and the open 
fireplace at evening, with an occasional pine knot thrown in, 
added luminosity to the genial glow and warmth of the blazing 
logs. Of course the tallow candle was the luxurious artificial 
light of colonial nights, and it is not necessary to recite the 
methods of making that well-known domestic article — the 
"tallow dip." The well-to-do people of that period indulged 
in wax candles, made of the barberry, sometimes called the 
candle tree, w^ax. The scarcity of this bush on the island 
made it a luxury, and only when a distinguished guest, such 
as the judges, who came from Boston, on some important 
mission, were they brought out to shed their gentle beams on 
the sand-covered floors. As the whale fisheries was one of 
the pursuits of the people here before 1700, it is highly prob- 
able that whale oil was employed in some form of primitive 
lamp and used by the settlers to penetrate the gloom of their 
long winter evenings. In giving some testimony in 1662, 
William Vincent referred to a person who "had Lighted the 
Lamp," at the time referred to in the case, and we can suppose 
it was made to burn with that kind of oil. 



LITERATURE. 

The reading matter enjoyed by the people of the Vine- 
yard in colonial times, as shown by the inventories of their 
personal property, was, it must be confessed, of a rather dole- 
ful variety. It was characteristic of the period, however, and 
no special significance is to be attached to it. INIost of the 
books were heavy theological disputations, soporific sermons, 
"last dying words" of some convicted felon who had grown in 
grace as the day of execution neared, commentaries on the 
Scriptures, and such like volumes. They were neither cheer- 
ful nor elevating, and the bulk of them have gone to the paper 
mill years ago. 

A few books were written here and published in the first 
hundred years after the settlement. The earliest literary pro- 
ductions were by the younger Mayhew, written within the first 
ten years of the settlement and were in reality letters descrip- 
tive of his labors among the Indians. They were printed in 
small quartos, and published in London by the Society for the 
Propagation of the Gospel, and are now very rare. 

477 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

The first pretentious book written here was by Matthew 
Mayhew% published in 1695, entitled "Conquests and Tri- 
umphs of Grace," with an account of the Indians of Martha's 
Vineyard. It is a small octavo — now extremely rare — only 
one copy known in America, at present in the magnificent 
private library of the late J. Carter Brown. It is a fairly 
good account of the mission work of the Mayhews, together 
with an interesting description of the Indians themselves. 

The Rev. William Homes of Chilm.ark published several 
sermons about 1720 to 1740, one of which, delivered in Tisbury 
in 1 7 19, was lately offered for sale. It was entided: "A 
Discourse concerning the public Reading of the Scriptures by 
the Lords People in their Religious Assemblies."^ 

The book, however, which is best known and is by far 
the most important of all the literary productions of the Vine- 
yard, is the serious and solemn "Indian Converts," by Ex- 
perience Mayhew, published in 1726. It is a book of about 
two hundred pages, and passed through several editions." 

The work consists of biographical sketches of the Indians 
of the Vineyard, who became converted to Christianity under 
the missionaries. It is divided into three sections, — Indian 
Men, Indian Women, and Indian Children. This last section 
putting as it does into the mouths of boys and girls of the 
Algonquian race some of the ponderous logic of Puritan theology, 
as evidence of their acceptance and belief in the new religion, 
draws somewhat deeply on our credulity. Fortunately for the 
permanent value of the book, he gives us some biographies of 
the bad Indians of the Vineyard, and it must be admitted that 
their devotion to the "firewater" of the whites and faithful- 
ness to their own pawwaws or medicine men adds a not-un- 
welcome human touch to this valuable colonial book. 

As an instance of the scarcity of books at that period, it 
may be said that Samuel Sarson, who was one of the wealthiest 
''swells" of his time, who died in 1703, had but four books 
among his personal estate. Bibles of the King James version, 
with occasional copies of the "Vinegar" and "Breeches" 
texts, were the most valuable books in the colonial libraries. 
Simon Athearn had two Bibles when he died, which were 

'At the suggestion of the author the Duodecimo Club of Vineyard Haven pur- 
chased this copy and presented it to the Public Library in that village. 

^It is rare, in good condition, and fetches about $io. The author has a copy 
minus the title page. The late Davis Smith had a copy some years ago, and Mr. 
William J. Rotch recently secured a good copy, which is now in his possession. 



THE 

Conquests and Triumphs 

OF 

GRACE: 

BEING 

A Brief Narrative of the ^urrrsa which the (Sos^rl hath had 
among the INDIANS of ^larthas' Vineyard (and the 
Places adjacent) in New England. 

WITH 

Some Remarkable Citviojitics, concerning the Numbers the 
Ciijtomes, and the jjresent Circumftances of the 
INDIANS on that Ifland. 

Further Explaining and Confirming the account given of 
those Matters by Mr. (Eottoit ilatlirr in the Life of the 
Renowned Mr. dloliu Sliot 

By M A T T H E W M A Y H E \\ . 

Attefted by the Reverend Mr: Nath. Mather, and others 

Whereto is Added 

An Account concerning the Present State of Christianity 
Among the Lidians, in other Parts of Neiv-England : 
Expreffed in the Letters of feveral Worthy Persons beft 
acquainted therewithal. 

LONDON, Printed for Nath. Hiller, at the Princes Arms in Leaden- 
hall-jtreet, over againft St. Mary Axe, 1695. 



(Size of original, within lines, 3 1-16 x 5 5-1& inches.) 
Title page of the first book pubhshed In- a Vineyard author, 1695. 



Life in Vineyard Towns During Colonial Times 

appraised at five pounds, or an equivalent of $25 in our present 
currency, or about $100 as reckoned by the relative value of 
their money at this day. The books of Experience Mayhew 
were so few that they were only valued in 1759 at four pounds, 
four shillings. 

To Ezra Covell of Edgartown, a ''merchant taylor," be- 
longs the honor of making the first provision for a public 
library on the Vineyard. After disposing of his estate ''to 
the uttermost penny" to his wife, he made the following con- 
tingent bequest : — 

And if it should be that we both depart the world at one time then 
all that I have given her shall be bestowed in Bibles or other good Bokes 
for the use of the children in the above mentioned Edgartown.' 

In a codicil to this will, two years later (1698), he rectified 
this improbable contingency of their simultaneous death and 
provided "that if she should decease so soon after him, that 
she neither wills nor disposeth of it, then the same to be to 
the uses within named." 

PAPER AND WRITING. 

The scarcity of paper in colonial times made it necessary 
for the exercise of economy in literary scribbling, correspon- 
dence, etc. Paper mills were few and far between in this 
country before 1700 — most of the paper was imported. 
This enforced economy of paper led to the use of contractions 
in writing which we have observed in records of the period. 
All our early public records, in fact, are full of contracted 
spellings for this reason, the penmanship usually very fine 
and cramped, to save paper. As paper became more plentiful, 
the science of orthography ran riot in the extra space afforded, 
and enlarged forms of words, with wonderful spellings, took 
the place of the shortened symbols of the preceding genera- 
tions. As an example of this later variety is the spelling of 
"Feburywary" for the second month, in the Chilmark records. 

Ink was of home manufacture. Old iron scraps were 
placed in a decoction of nut galls, producing after a period the 
tannate or gallate of iron, the. best and most permanent medium 
for record writing. 

Pens were of course made of quills plucked from the farm- 
yard goose and cut by the user as needed. With this equipment 

Will dated April 29, 1696. Probate Records, I, 15. 

479 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

Jonathan Dunham, John Mayhew, Ralph Thacher, Expe- 
rience Mayhew, and Josiah Torrey, indited their sermons for 
the benefit of their earlier generations then living on the three 
towns on the Vineyard. 

It will be noticed that the documents reprinted in this 
history, whenever copied from the ancient records, do not 
have the familiar "ye" for the when that word occurs in the 
text. In the struggle for literal accuracy in the transcription 
of early records it is the general custom to write "ye" for 
"the" in manuscripts, and it seems desirable to call the at- 
tention of persons accustomed to this habit to say that it 
has no foundation in orthography or orthoepy. In copies 
from gravestone inscriptions, where a perfect reproduction 
is possible in all the forms of the letters, the use of "ye" 
may be pardonable, but unless we undertake to have a 
special font of type to represent the early forms of written 
letters it is absurd to single out the word "the" for mis- 
representation as "ye." The letter "c" occurring in the 
middle of a word in the handwriting of the times of the 
Pilgrim settlements looks like a "t," as near as can be 
represented in type, but no one adopts it as a substitute, else 
we should have people selling "atres" of land. No one 
seriously supposes that our ancestors went about speaking of 
"ye house" and pronouncing it as spelled. The Century 
Dictionary says on this point: "Modern archaists often affect 
ye for the, and many pronounce it as it looks, ye." The cus- 
tom arose, as explained there, from the printers of the latter 
English period using a "ye" to represent the Anglo-Saxon and 
early English "pe" (the), as near as can be shown in modern 
type, because they had no form in type exactly like the char- 
acter for "th" in the Anglo-Saxon. 

It is a matter of common observation that many early 
settlers were accustomed to use a "mark" instead of a signa- 
ture, and it is a question whether it indicated illiteracy, indo- 
lence, or economy in ink. In some cases it is fair to assume 
the first where the station and avocation of the person would 
warrant that conclusion. It is evident that men made a 
"mark" who could write and instances of this kind are not 
uncommon. It often happened that wills were signed with a 
"mark," which should not be taken as a evidence of inability 
to write, but to write at that time, because of sickness, the 
document being signed when very aged, or in stress of disease. 
A case like this relates to one of our early settlers which caused 

480 



Life in Vineyard Towns During Colonial Times 

a descendant much chagrin, but a fine signature was found in 
a petition which indicated he could write a bold, free hand. 
It would be interesting to know if this habit of signing with 
"marks" obtained to any extent among those who could write 
but were unable or unwilling to for one reason or another. 



COLONIAL VISITORS. 

Social life, as exemplified by the intercourse of the people 
themselves with each other and with others who visited the 
island during the first hundred years after its settlement, has 
left but few traces upon which to base definite conclusions. 
Lying as it does in the great highway of commerce between 
New England and the South, the Vineyard was then as now 
a resting place for almost all traffic bound east or west. Hence 
it must have been a common event for passengers in the coast- 
wise packets to come ashore and pass their leisure hours and 
days at the taverns or at the houses of the "quality" of Edgar- 
town and Homes Hole. The first visitor of whom we have 
knowledge was Mr. Andrew Forrester, steward of the Lord 
Stirling, in 1647, who came to look after his principal's prop- 
erty. In 1653 came Rev. Michael Wigglesworth, author of 
the celebrated poem of horrible prophecies, "The Day of 
Doom," on which our ancestors fed for religious consolation. 
In 1657 th^ Quaker preacher, Christopher Holder, tried his 
luck in proselyting here, but with disastrous results. The 
well-known Indian "Apostle" John Eliot, was a guest of the 
elder Mayhew, at the ordination of the first native preacher. 
In 1692 Major General John Walley visited the island on a 
political mission. These are the loiown visitors, but it is such 
a small list that we can surely say that many more of the 
celebrities of the day paid our island a visit, when passing by 
in their passage to and from the western settlements along the 
coast. 

Fortunately for our purposes there are extant the journals 
of four voyages to the Vineyard made in 1702, 1706, 1712, 
and 1 714, by the eminent jurist and citizen of Boston, Judge 
Samuel Sewall, and his son of the same name, in which they 
record scenes and events of their visits which give us the best 
pictures of the social conditions on the Vineyard, at that period. 
They will bear inserting in full in this section to aid us in 
depicting the life of the people as observed by them, and how 

481 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

they fared during their stays on the island. The first visit was 
made by the father, and the record of it is as follows : — 

April 6, 1702. Go to the Ferry House; His Boat is at little Wood's 
hole: travel thither; there embark and have a good passage over in little 
more than an hours time. Refresh at Chases, from thence rode to Tis- 
bury. First man I speak with is Joseph Daggett; he tells me (Robert) 
Kithcart keeps an Ordinary: we go thither, the Day Light being almost 
spent. Mr. (Isaac) Robinson's son helps us and bears company awhile. 
(Edward) Milton visits us. Get to Weeks about i p.m. 

Tuesday April 7. Mr. Sheriff Allen having visited us over night in 
his way from the old Town comes to see us this morn. Then visit Major 
(Matthew) Mayhew, then Exper(ience) whose wife lyes in of a son. Dine 
at Major Mayhew's, then rode to the Gay-head Neck, to Abel's wigwam, 
where was pleased with the goodness of his house especially the Furni- 
turs, demonstrating his Industry. . . . Visit Mr. Thacher in our return. 
'Tis a pretty while within night by that time we get from our Quarters 
at Mr. Allen's where sup with the Sheriff, his wife Major Mayhew, Mr. 
(Josiah) Torrey, Experience Mayhew. Have a very good Chamber and 
Bed to lodge in, one of the best in Chilmark. 

Wednesday April 8. Japhet, Jonathan and Stephen came to me: 
I have much discourse with them: try to convince Stephen of his Ana- 
baptistical Errors; Jonas and he have a Church of about 30, ten men. 
Gave Japhet two Arabian pieces of 8-8 to buy corn. Mr. Experience 
Mayhew proposes to me as a thing very expedient that some short Treatise 
be drawn up and translated into Indian to prevent the spreading of the 
Anabaptisticall Notions. Mr. (Ralph) Thacher and Mr. Thomas May- 
hew and Mr. (Simon) Athern accompany me in my way towards Edgar- 
town. Dine at Mr. Athern's; his wife not 14 when he married her. . . . 
On the Rode first Mr. Mayhew and then Japhet, tell me the story of 
Japhet's birth. Get to the Town about 3 p.m. Visit Mr. Diman. (this 
is probably an error for Dunham) Go aboard and visit Capt. Jonas 
Clay, sick of Gout. Lodge at Parson's, (probably meaning at Parson 
Dunham's) 

Thursday April 9. Breakfast at Major Mayhew's. Major Mayhew 
and his Brother accompany us to (Isaac) Chases, where meet with Ex- 
perience Mayhew and Mr Allen the Sherriffe. Chases Boat not come. 
By the time I got over 't was near sunset.' 

The second visit was made by the elder Sewall four years 
later, and the short record of it is as follows : — 

Sept. 2, 1706. Embarked for the Vineyard: but by stormy rough 
weather were forced back again to Wood's hole. 

Sept; 3. Went to the Vineyard with a fair wind, and from Homes's 
Hole to Tisbury and I to Chilmark, to Mr. (James) Allen's. 

Sept; 4. To Gay head, Mr Danforth, I, Mr. Thomas Mayhew, 
Major (Nathan) Bassett. 

Sept; Din'd at Mr. Mayhew's; went to Homes's Hole to wait for 
a Passage to Rode-Island or Bristol. There lay wind bound. 

'Diary, III, 397. 
482 



Life in Vineyard Towns During Colonial Times 

Sept; 8. Mr. Danforth and I go to Tisbury Meeting. Mr. Josiah 
Torrey preach'd forenoon: Mr. Danforth after noon. Return'd to (Isaac) 
Chases to Mr. Bromfield. 

Sept; 9. Monday, embark'd with a scant wind.' 

The persons accompanying Judge Sewall were, probably, 
the Rev. Samuel Danforth and Edward Bromfield of Boston, 
the latter of the governor's council. The visit was made, it 
would seem, on account of the missionary work at Gay Head, 
in which Sewall was greatly interested. 

The next visit was made in 171 2 by the younger Sewall, 
in company with Lieutenant Governor William Tailer, Colonel 
Penn Townsend of his council, and some others. The journal 
contains the following record of his proceedings : — 

Satturday, (October 4th,), sett forward for Seccunnessett. Baited 
at Fishes. Dined at Demiks. There send Boy for to see for the Ferry 
Boat. After Dinner proceeded to the Ferry. Gott aboard betwixt 4 
and 5. Gott ashore about g a Clock at night. From thence walked one 
mile ^ to Chases, then ridd to Sheriff Allen's, gott there by 12 a Clock 
at night. Lodg'd there. Col Townsend Mr Barnard and myself; Gov'r 
Taylor & Maj'r Thaxter at the Ferry Place. 

Sabbath Day went to meeting at Chilmark at Mr. Thatcher's Church: 
Mr Barnard Preached all Day. Lt. Gov'r lodg'd att (Robert) Kithcarths, 
with Maj'r Thaxter (probably Major Samuel, grandfather of Parson 
Thaxter). 

Monday morning sett forward for Gay Head, with Lt. Gov'r, Col 
Townsend, Maj'r Mayhew, Maj'r Skiff Mr. Sheriff Allen, Maj'r Thaxter, 
Mr. Barnard, Capt. (Zaccheus) Mayhew, Experience Mayhew, Mr. 
Benjamin Allen. "U^ien came to the Indian Meeting House, These Maj'r 
Skiff" and myself gave livery and seizen. Abel gott 80 sheep and 400 
Lambs. Brave Land 6 oxen 6 cows 2 or 3 horses. Remember to gett 
Testiament for Eliaz'r Allen, at the Vineyard. 

Tuesday October 7. Went from Sheriff Aliens and Din'd at Mr. 
Kithdarcth's, where I met with Mr. (Simon) Atturn & Mr. Torrey. Went 
for Edgartown. Lodg'd at Mr. (John) Worth's. 

Wednesday night. Lodged at Mr. Worths. Had a great dispute 
about Chappaquiddick, the Sachem appearing before us and Mr. (Ben- 
jamin) Haws his Attorney for him. Mr. Turner plead for the English 
for their fight in the Herbage The Island right over against the Harbour. 
Mr Worths house. 

Thursday night. — Lodged at Homes' Hole. 

Friday morning betimes gott aboard of the Ferry Boat. Gott ashore 
■on Secconnessett side at Wood's Hole by 9 in the morning. 5 Horses. 
The 4 Gentlemen came in the next boat.^ 

The fourth and last of these interesting visits was made 
by the elder Sewall in 17 14, and like the others related to the 



'Diary, II, i66. 

^Diary (printed in N. E. Gen. Register). 



483 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

business of the society for the Propagation of the Gospel among 
the Indians of New England, of which Sewall was an active 
promoter. The entries in his journal are as follows: — 

Second-day April 5, 1714. ... In our Passage we were becalmed, 
and the Tide against us so that we were 2^ hours getting over. Were 
fain to row to the West side of Onkakemy Bay, where we landed, the 
sloop coming to an Anchor. Our Horses were forced to leap into the Sea. 
By that time had tackled them was duskish. 

Major Thaxter discovered some men and Horses, as he thought, 
upon the Beach at a distance. When came to them found Thomas Paul 
a lame Indian on Horseback with his net on his shoulder, to catch Fish 
by night. Upon my speaking to him to Pilot me, he left his net and did 
it very well. W^e were ready to be offended that an Englishman J%»nathan 
Lumbard, in the Company spake not a word to us, and it seems he is 
deaf and dumb. Got to Mr. Aliens a little before 9 at night. 

Third-day. April 6. I am something indisposed, resolved not to 
goe abroad. Mr. Thomas Mayhew, Mr. Allen, Father, Mr. Haws and 
others come in to see us. Mr. Mayhew writes a Letter in Indian to Saul, 
which I subscribed myself, to notify the Indians of the Gay-Head to come 
together some thing before noon. I would speak with them after Mr. 
Mayhew's Lecture. I writ a Letter to Mr. Mayhew of the same import, 
sent them by Mr. Haws, who is going to Nomans Land. Discours'd 
Mr. Mayhew largely of the Indian affairs. I was glad to hear that the 
Gay-Head Indians had of their own account, met together and run a 
Fence across the Neck. Mr. Mayhew had advised them to it many years 
agoe, but they did it not until this Spring Mr. Mayhew was with them 
at their consultation. He tells me a Ditch four foot wide and two deep 
which he effected the last, will cost but 6s. per Rod. Mr. Torry and 
Cathcart dine with us, and Mr. Homes who boards at Mr. Allen's to teach 
School. 

In the Evening Mr. Ralph Thacher had his son Ralph call and Well- 
corn me to the Island. They tell us of a Governour coming over for us: 
had been gone three weeks; to take Ireland in his way. They had this 
News from Mr. Otis of Sandwich. They i-eckon a Ship is come in from 
England. iVIr. Otis read the Letter. They lodg'd at Fish's last Monday 
Night. After they were gone, Mr. Experience Mayhew came in to see 
me, and invited us to Dine or Sup with him after the Lecture in our Re- 
turn home. 

Mid-week, April 7, 17 14. Very serene. Sunshiny morning, the most 
pleasant we have had since we came from home. 

Indian Boy Josiah Hassit Jun'r Psalm Book. 

Abel Sacachassauet, Promised (sent a New Testament, July 5, 1714). 

Major Thaxter and I went to the Gay-Head, accompanied by Mr". 
Thomas Mayhew, Mr. Josiah Torrey, Mr. Ebenezer Allen, Mr. Robert 
Cathcart, Mr. Benjamin Haws, Mr. John Dennison, Mr. Robert Homes, 
David Sinclair. Major Skiff and Mr. Experience Mayhew we took in 
our way. About one hundred Men and Women were gathered together 
besides Children. Mr. Mayhew directed Joash Pannos, Minister of 
Gay-Head to begin with Prayer; then, I\'Ir. Mayhew preached from 
Ephes. I. II. — vvho worketh all things after the Counsel of his own Will. 

484 



Life in Vineyard Towns During Colonial Times 

Sung 4 verses of the iiith Psalm. Mr. Torrey set the Low-Dutch Tune. 
Mr. Mayhew gave in the heads of his Sermon in English; a good Discourse. 
Isaac Ompane concluded with Prayer. I enquired if any one could read 
English; proclamation was made. At last only two young men were 
produced. I set him to read in my Psalm-book with red Covers, and 
then gave it him. Promised a Testament to the 2d. 

Fifth-day, April 8, 17 14. at Mr. Ebenezer Allen's in Marthas Vine- 
yard sent for Mr. Benjamin Mayhew, who has land adjoining the Gay- 
head neck, I informed him that the Gay-head Indians have made their 
Half of Fence, on the side towards the Sound, and desired him to make 
his Half, that the Neck might be closed; which he agrees to. And he is 
promised that his so doing shall not alter any Lease he has of Sam Osowit 
for about 10 or 12 acres just within the Neck. To Sarah Japhet, widow, 
I2S. to help Fill her Land. Bethiah, Nicodemus' widow, who died at 
Port Royal, is her daughter, and dwells with her. Bethiah has one sone, 
of 22 years old, who is helpless by reason of Sickness; have one Servant 
17 years old. April 8, was exceeding dark at one Time in the morning. I 
have hardly seen such Thick Darkness. Great Rain, considerable Light- 
ening and Thunder before Night. 

Sixth-day, April 9, 1714. Fair Weather: Cold Northerly Wind. 
Visit Abel's widow. Go to the top of Prospect Hill, from thence to the 
Sound and by Mr. Thomas Mayhew's direction viewed the River falling 
into the Sound, and the shoar all along to the end of the 327 Rods which 
extends South-ward to the middle Line, containing about 1000 Acres 
which belongs to the Corporation. 

April ID, 1714. The wind being excessive high we did not goe to 
Holmes' Hole, but view'd Watsha neck all over, being conducted by Mr. 
Simon Athem and B. Haws: find much of it good for Herbage and Tillage. 
Sat awhile in the Wigwam where EHzabeth, Stephen Spokes' Widow 
dwells: eat roste Alewive and very good Hasty Pudding. Gave the 
Widow at coming away los. Get to Mr. Worth's between 3 and 4. De- 
manded rent of Mrs. Worth for the Neck. Went to Mr. Mat. Mayhew 
for a copy for another Letter of Attorney of his Father. 

Seventh -day, April 10, 17 14. The last night was very Cold. Plenty 
of Ice was to be seen in the Road between Mr. x'Vllen's and Cathcarts 
past Ten a clock in the fair sunshine. 

Edgartown: April 11, 17 14. Serene Day. Ps 90. 1-6. L. By 
Mr. Samuel Wiswall, A.M. ... In the evening visited Mrs. Lothrop. 
As we went we met Capt. Dogget and Mr. Mat. Mayhew coming to see 
us. Mrs. Lothrop has 8 children. They are all well. Mr. Wiswall 
eat with us between 4 and 5 p.m. Their custom is not to dine. Capt. 
Dogget expresses a great desire Mr. W. may continue with them, fears 
lest he should be discouraged and remove. Would have me endeavor to 
persuade him to stay among them. Two sloops sailed yesterday; one 
for Boston, the other for Woods' Hole. 

Second-day April 12, 17 14. Major Thaxter and Mr. Dennison go 
to Mr. Mayhew for the Letter of attorney and an extract of the Deed. 
Yet our Landlady scruples paying arrears. Thinks I may be able to de- 
mand only what has grown due since my Lord Lymerick made conveyed 
his lands and Lordship to the hon'ble Company whereof Sir William 
Ashurst is Governor. 

485 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

Rode to Holmes' Hole, accompanied by Mr. Jno. Worth, Capt. 
Doggett, Mr. Matthew Mayhew, Benjamin Haws, John Tolman. Came 
of about 25 minutes past 10, m. To Job Soumauau, Schoolmaster at 
Christain Town, ten shillings. Had a good passage over with young 
Mrs. Daggett of Attleborough.' 

AMUSEMENTS. 

The state of living and the habits of life attendant upon 
the settling a strange country, almost a wilderness, did not 
allow of any general relaxation from the work of fishing, 
trading and tilling the soil. The early settlers left behind the 
sports and pastimes of old England, and did not renew them 
here because they did not have the place or time to give to 
their enjoyment. It is safe to say that few outdoor games were 
ever played here in the 17 th century, and such amusement as 
they sought was in the pipe and bowl and spinning yarns at 
neighborhood gatherings. The possession even of cards, dice, 
and other gaming implements was prohibited in the other 
colonies,^ and the indulgence in cards in this insular jurisdic- 
tion may be supposed to have been interdicted, though no laws 
to that effect are recorded.^ From negative inference we 
are led to believe card-playing was indulged in by some of 
the settlers. The games of cards known in those days were 
Primero, Trump, Gresco, Port, Noddy, Gleek, and others not 
known to the present generation. Wliist, or as it was formerly 
written Whisk, was not developed till the next century. 
ISIatthew Mayhew, in a document dated 1675, showed his 
familiarity with the game of cards by referring to the tactics 
of his opponents: "Every card they play is an Ace and every 
Ace a Trump." Twenty years later, when the "outs" were 
recommending Simon Athearn for the place of justice, they 
solemnly averred that he was "no card player,"^ a statement 
that was probably intended as a covert allusion to Mayhew's 
liberal views of such things. 

CONVIVIAL AND RELIGIOUS TIPPLING. 

If drinking liquor can be called an amusement, it is cer- 
tain that a considerable number of the people, from the clergy 

'Diary, II, 432. 

^Conn. Rec, I, 289, 527: Mass. Col. Rec, I, 84. 

^In England it was forbidden any householder to permit card-playing in his 
house under the penalty of si.x shillings and eight pence for every offence. (Stat. 
Anno II, Hen. VII, Cap 2.) 

*Mass. Archives, CXII, 435. 

486 



Life in Vineyard Towns During Colonial Times 

down to the serving-man, indulged their spare hours to an 
appreciable extent. Beer was brewed on the island. There 
was a malt-house at Edgartown before 1700, and the vessels 
that touched here in their voyages to and from St. Kitts, Bar- 
badoes, and Jamaica, furnished the rum and aqua vitae to 
those who indulged in "strong drink." The use of liquor was 
well-nigh universal in the i8th century. I need only cite its 
regular appearance at ministerial ordinations, church raisings, 
funerals, and weddings, as pertinent evidence on this point. 

In the limited sense of games, however, we are without 
definite information, and yet it is to be presumed that a people 
who came from "Merrie England" with its storehouse of 
sports,, playful and athletic, did not forget entirely how to relax 
in innocent and healthful pastimes. 



TOBACCO. 

Tobacco-smoking, or as it was then called "Drinking 
Tobacco," was indulged at the Vineyard soon after the set- 
tlement. Probably the Indians used some kind of a weed 
before the advent of the whites. Traffic in tobacco is men- 
tioned as early as 1659, and from that time forth occasional 
references to it appear. Being a maritime place, where old 
sea-dogs were wont to congregate, it would have been surprising 
if the weed were not an article of use and traffic. In 1700 it 
was stated that smugglers "land Great part of it (tobacco) at 
Martins Vineyard or at Elizabeth Island where it is Housed, 
not paying the Collector if they are Discovered above ^ the 
Duty of the i penny p. pound Sterl."^ The cultivation of tobacco 
was also undertaken here about the middle of the eighteenth 
century. In a suit at law in 1767, Thomas Arey vs. Seth 
Dunham, the plaintiff stated that he raised this plant on his 
land at Tom's Neck (Chappaquiddick), and alleged that 
the defendant carried away "about one hundred Plants of 
Tobacco."' 

The taverns of the Vineyard would not have had a natural 
appearance about them if the pipe and bowl had not found 
vogue here among the colonists. As a rule, its use was frowned 

^Edward Randolph to the Board of Trade, 5 Nov. 1700. (State Papers. P. R. Q . 
V. 48.) 

'Dukes County Court Records. Tobacco is raised in Connecticut at the present 
time in a climate less favorable than our island conditions. 

487 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

upon by the Puritans, and laws restricting its use were made 
in most of the colonies. But it was not the Puritan alone who 

"Abhorres a sattin suit, a velvet cloak 
And sayes tobacco is the devill's smoke." 

It will be remembered that King James I had a 
violent personal antipathy to tobacco, and wrote an extrava- 
gant pamphlet against it, entitled "A Counterblaste to To- 
bacco," and his influence and that of his followers at court 
was employed to prohibit its use. 

Of him it was written : 

"In quilted doublet and great trunk breeches 
^Vho held in abhorrence tobacco and witches." 



BEATING THE BOUNDS. 

There is an old English ceremony, how old no man knows, 
for it was derived from the Romans, of making an annual 
perambulation of one's property and examining, repairing, 
and publicly declaring the boundaries of the same. It was 
the custom of the Romans to erect a statue of their god Ter- 
minus, at each corner of their property, and in these yearly 
walks round to decorate the image with flowers and offer liba- 
tions to him. He was sculptured as a legless person to show 
that he never moved. In England this annual ceremony is 
limited to a public procession about the bounds of an estate, 
parish, or city, headed by some representative of the owner or 
corporation officials, accompanied by whomsoever chooses 
to join in the affair. This is known as '' beating the bounds," 
because the boys of the locality are furnished with long willow 
branches and strike the bound stones with them when they 
are reached, to point out to all concerned the extent of the 
property claimed. It is done to this day, even in London, 
and is the occasion of a jollification, in which the boys partake 
of a feast at the expense of the municipality. This custom 
was continued here by our forefathers, but the name given to 
it was "perambulating the bounds," and was unaccompanied 
by any form of hilarity. Indeed it was a serious and solemn 
business, like all their life work, and the selectmen of the 
towns, which had adjoining division lines, met, soberly walked 
round the landm.arks, saw that they were in place, and "re- 
newed" them in their respective town records by an entry to 

488 



Life in Vineyard Towns During Colonial Times 

that effect. A sample of this record is here given from the 
Tisbury book, and is hke others in the abutting townships : — 

February the loth 1740 Wee the Subscribers being the Selectmen of 
the Towns of Tisbury and Chilmark, being Mett in Order to Perambu- 
late & Renew the Bounds between the sd Towns and accordingly Wee 
agree to Renew a Rock lying in the Wash of the Sea on the North side 
of the Island; and a Great Rock Lying at the East End of the Midle Line. 
Commonly known by the Name of the great Rock; and further to a Stake 
with a heap of Stones round it at a place Commonly known by the name 
of Cases field And to a black Oake Saplin Markt at the North side of 
the Road a Little to the Westward of the House of Mr Eliashib Adams. 
All which we find to be the Bounds Renewed by the Select men hereto 

Samuel Lumbert | Selectmen Silvanus Allen | Selectmen 
Shubael Luce j 0} Tisbury Eliashib Adams j oj Chilmark 

COMPUTATION OF TIME. 

The reckoning of time among our ancestors was accom- 
plished by rather crude means. It is doubtful if there was a 
clock or watch on the -island for the first fifty years of the set- 
tlement. None appear in the inventories at that period. 
Sun dials, hour glasses, and noon-notches cut on window and 
door sills on the southern side of the house were the only means 
they had of knowing the hour or measuring the time. Oc- 
casionally the hours would be cut on the window sill, so that 
the house-wife could tell when to expect the men to return 
from the fields. This would be of service only on sunshiny 
days. Hour-glasses were used for the pulpit, to mark the 
length of the sermon, and give the parson a hint that his sands 
were fast running away. Calendar time, as they reckoned it, 
requires particular explanation. 

From 1607, the practical beginning of the colonial period, 
up to March 25, 1752, " x\nnunciation " or "Lady's Day," 
just after the Vernal Equinox, was New Year's day. March 24 
was the last day of the year, and the months ran from jNIarch 
as the first month to February as the twelfth month. The 
prefixes to names of months Sept-ember, Oct-ober, Nov-ember, 
and Dec-ember indicate this respectively for the seventh, 
eight, ninth, and tenth months; July and August, likewise, 
were anciently denominated Quintilis and Sextilis, fifth and 
sixth, their present names having been bestowed in compli- 
ment to Julius Cfesar and Augustus. 

For a part of this period, from 1607 to 1752, double dating 
was the common practice for the months between January i 

489 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

and March ; this was an attempt to try to give dates for a year 
beginning March 25, and at the same time for a year begin- 
ning January i . This had led to much confusion, and a great 
many times to much embarrassment; and, where double dat- 
ing was not used, the reading and recording of dates has often 
been very erroneous and misleading. The change was made 
to January i , or rather the change, w^hich had been made long 
before in some of the European countries, was finally adopted 
and became the universal practice for Great Britain and her 
colonies, in 1752. 

Almanacs were also very scarce, until the i8th century, 
and then one copy would answer for the whole neighborhood. 
Just how they kept sure reckoning of the days and months, 
without these aids to calculation, is hard to understand. As 
many of the months were named for pagan deities, the Puri- 
tans would not use those names, and called them by number, 
March being the first as already stated. This lasted during 
the 17th century. Our records abound in allusions to this 
system of enumeration, "because they would avoid," says 
Lechford, "all memory of heathenish and idols names." 
The Quakers still use this method of designating the months, 
as well as the days of the week. 

AGRICULTURE. 

While modern machines for the use of the farmer have 
robbed "haying" of its most picturesque features, yet now as 
then the scythe was the first implement in the hands of the 
tillers of the soil.* A scythe was valued at about ten shillings 
on the Vineyard in 1663; a sickle at two shillings in 1669; 
and a pitchfork at a shilling the same year. The ploughing 
and all heavy farm work was done by oxen, while the hand 
implements have not been altered to any extent at the present 
time, except in the combination of lightness with strength, 

'It may not be generally known that the most valuable improvement made upon 
this implement for centuries was by one of the first iron-workers of Massachusetts, 
more than two hundred years ago, in the very infancy of the colony. In the year 
1646 the general assembly of that province granted to Joseph Jenckes, of Lynn, con- 
nected with the first iron-works in that colony, the exclusive privilege for fourteen 
years "to make experience of his abillityes and inventions for making," among other 
things, of "mills for the making of sithes and other edge-tooles." His patent "for 
the more speedy cutting of grasse" was renewed for seven years in May. 1655. The 
improvement consisted in making the blade longer and thinner, and in strengthening 
it at the same time, by welding a square bar of iron to the back, as in the modern 
scythe, thus materially improving upon the old English scythe then in use, which was 
short, thick, and heav}', like a bush-scythe. 

490 



Life in Vineyard Towns During Colonial Times 

since the introduction of steel. The regular crops on the farm 
consisted of hay as the principal product, with necessary sow- 
ings of "Turkey wheat" (corn)', rye and oats. Here and 
there barley was preferred. Salt grass was a great desideratum 
for the cattle, and meadow grass of this kind was highly prized 
by the early settlers. 

DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

There is considerable misapprehension as to the tim.e 
when domestic animals were brought to the Vineyard. It is 
generally supposed that they were not found on the island for 
many years after the arrival of the first settlers, but the records 
are the best evidence of their use quite early, and the following 
instances of their first mention shows when each kind appears 
in chronological sequence: Cattle in 1651; hogs in 1652; 
horses in 1653; sheep in the same year; goats in 1668; and 
domestic fowl, such as hens, ducks, and geese, before 1660. 
Dogs are referred to in 1661, and this must have been a native 
breed of canine, belonging to the Indians, and raised by them 
for hunting purposes. 

It is probable that domestic animals of all kinds were 
brought here still earlier than those dates. Doubtless the 
settlers had horses, cattle, and sheep within the first year or 
so of the landing and beginning of the plantation. Otherwise 
the necessary cultivation of the soil and the clearing of land 
could not be accomplished. They were driven down from 
Boston by the "Bay Path" so-called, through Plymouth and 
Falmouth, thence to be ferried over the sound in the little 
sailing vessels of the period. Small stock, such as sheep, hogs, 
and goats, may have been brought here by sailing vessels from 
the Bay towns. 

Values on domestic animals at that period are found to 
be ranging as follows: 1665, horses, £/[.] 1715, a mare and 
colt, £12; 1 7 18, horse, ;,^g: 17 19, horse, £']\ 1680, oxen, per 
pair, £s; 1703, £6; 1715, /;io; 17 18, £6; 1669, cows, £3 
to £^', 1715, £3.10; 1680, sheep, per score, £y, 1703, £^; 
1715, £6; 1665, goats, per score, ;^5-io; 1665, turkeys, 
2S. 6d.; geese, each, is. 6d.; and hogs, los. each. Money 

*" There grows in several parts of Africa, Asia, and America a kind of corn called 
Mays, and such as we commonly call Turkey wheat. They made bread of it which 
is hard of digestion, heavy in the stomach, and does not agree with any but such as 
are of robust and hail constitution." Lemery, "Treatise on Foods" (1704), p. 71. 

491 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

was valued in those times at about four or five times its present 
purchasing power, and by multiplying these figures that much 
the value of farm animals to the settlers may be ascertained. 

-EAR MARKS. 

In connection with the subject of domestic animals may 
be mentioned the system of identification employed by the 
settlers to indicate ownership. All cattle ran at large as there 
were few fences. Not until 1664 was there a "general fence" 
to corral their herds. It became necessary therefore to pro- 
vide some way of telling one's own animals. The device em- 
ployed in England of cutting the ears was resorted to, and the 
private "ear marks" of the owners were registered in the books 
of each town. As examples of these "marks" may be men- 
tioned, slits, crops, ha'pennies on one or the other ear or both. 
Crops were cuts across the tip of the ear; ha'pennies were 
half circles cut on the edge, and slits were longitudinal cuts 
which divided the free portion into two parts. The poet 
Spencer thus alludes to it : — 

" For feare least we like rogues should be reputed, 
And for eare-marked beasts abroad bebruted." 

The lack of fences to corral cattle was made up in part 
as time went on by the growth of hedges, in some places, and 
by the digging of ditches in others. Cattle, however, strayed for 
miles, and often were lost in the woods or swamps. Indeed, 
some went wild for lack of care and long absence from their 
homes, and it became necessary to kill them. 

CURRENCY AND EXCHANGE. 

There was very little actual money in circulation among 
our ancestors, and it commanded a high premium. It is 
probable that the salary of Thomas Mayhew the younger, of 
fifty pounds yearly, as missionary, was the largest amount of 
specie accumulated by anybody in the course of a year. The 
medium of exchange was corn, which was rated at a certain 
price per bushel, and in addition to this any article of mer- 
chandise was accepted at current values in the settlement of 
accounts. Wampum, the money of the Indians, would be 
accepted under certain conditions. Robert Pease, the town 

492 



Life in Vineyard Towns During Colonial Times 

weaver in 1656 was to have ''such pay as the town can raise 
among themselves, except wampan."^ In 1659 a verdict was 
rendered to be paid "half in wampam current and halfe in 
corne."- Again the next year, a verdict specified "any pay 
wampon excepted."^ Another required settlement with "In- 
dian corne at 3s. per bushel.'"' The first body of laws passed 
by the General Court of the Vineyard in 1672 decreed that 
"all charges of the Court shall bee paid in Money, corne or 
feathers."' At that date goose feathers ranked high as mer- 
chandise. Simon Athearn was fined in 1674-5 for his part 
in the "Dutch Rebellion," of which one half was to be paid 
in "produce," all indicating the scarcity of coined money t 
that period. References in the early records to "crowns," 
"shillings" and "pence" doubtless mean the English coinage 
of the time, which was brought over here by the emigrants, 
to which may be added the "Pine Tree" shillings, issued by 
the colonial authorities of Boston. This same condition of 
trade and barter existed in all the new settlements for many 
years, until the beginning of the next century, when the freer 
communication between the Mother country and the colonies 
resulted in the larger circulation of actual money. There was 
also added the Spanish pillar dollar, in silver, which became 
quite as much of a standard as the coinage of the realm. In- 
deed, by the time of the Revolution, it was the basis of com- 
parison of values of the Continental currency, issued as paper 
money. It was called a "piece of eight," because it had the 
value of eight reals, Spanish coin.^ The depreciation of the 
paper issues of the provincial authorities during the Revolu- 
tionary war became the cause of constant appeals upon the 
subject by the clergymen of the three towns, who were paid 
in that currency. It is made a part of the ecclesiastical history 
of each town, and will not be separately discussed here. It 
is, however, the place to explain the financial situation de- 
pendant upon that circumstance, which affected all alike, and 
it will only be necessary to present a table to show the relative 
value existing between the paper issue of the province and 

'Edgartown Records, I, 137. 
^Ibid., 134. 
=Ibid., 147. 
*Ibid., 145. 

^N. Y. Col. Mss. (Deeds, I, 78). 

*When Sewall visited the island in 1702, he "gave Japhet two Arabian pieces 
of Gold and Stephen two pieces of 8-8 to buy corn." (Diary, III, 397.) 

493 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

the Spanish milled dollar at the dates mentioned in the fol- 
lowing table : — 



JE OF lOO SPANISH MILLED 


DOLLARS IN CONTINENTAL 


CURRENCY, 


1777 




1778 




Jan. I 


$100 


July I 


$425 


Feb. I 


107 


1779 




Mar. I 


109 


Jan. I 


742 


Apr. I 


112 


Feb. I 


868 


May I 


"5 


Mar. I 


1000 


June I 


120 


Apr. I 


1104 


July I 


125 


May I 


1215 


Aug. I 


150 


June I 


1342 


Sept. I 


175 


July I 


1477 


Oct. I 


275 


Aug. I 


1630 


Nov. I 


300 


Sept. I 


1800 


Dec. I 


310 


Oct. I 


2030 


1778 




Nov. I 


2308 


Jan. I 


325 


Dec. I 


2593 


Feb. I 


350 


1780 




Mar. I 


375 


Jan. I 


2934 


Apr. I 


400 


Feb. I 


3322 


May I 


4CX3 


Mar. I 


3736 


June I 


400 


Apr. I 


4000 



There was also an earlier form of paper money issued by 
the provincial authorities, which received the names of old, 
middle, and new tenor, from the dates of which it was put 
into circulation. Old tenor dates prior to 1737, middle was 
issued 1737-40, and new tenor was currency of any date sub- 
sequent to 1740. Each bill bore a declaration that it should 
be equal in sterling coin to the amount named on the face of 
the bill, but they became depreciated in value, in the course 
of time, and contracts for salaries were drawn up upon the 
basis of old or new tenor, according to agreement. It became 
the source of endless bickering between the ministers and the 
people in the settlement of their salaries, in the middle of the 
1 8th century, as will be noted in the ecclesiastical history of 
each town. 

PRACTICE OF MEDICINE. 

In a letter dated Nov. 18, 1647, ^^e younger Mayhew tells 
us of an incident in his work of Christianizing the Indians. 
*'A Sagamore," he says, "called Towanquattick, had his eldest 
Sonne, whose name is Sachachanimo, very sick of a Feaver: 
this young man sent for me to come to him and when I came 



494 



Life in Vineyard Towns During Colonial Times 

his father and himself desired me to pray for him, the which 
I did in their owne language, and promised to come againe 
unto him shortly if he mended not, and use some other means 
also for his recovery: When I came againe unto him, I found 
him very ill, asked him (together with his friends) whether 
they were willing I should let him blood? acquainting them 
that we used so to do in such cases. After some consideration 
they consented thereto, notwithstanding the Pawwaws had 
told them before that he should dye, because he sought not 
unto them: so I bound his arme, and with my Pen-knife let 
him blood, he bled freely, but was exceeding faint, which 
made the Heathen very sad, but in a short time, he began 
to be very cheerfull, whereat they much rejoiced, &c. So I 
left them, and it pleased the Lord the man was in a short 
time after very well."^ 

We find Governor Mayhew writing to Governor Winthrop 
of Connecticut in regard to the illness of one of his grand- 
daughters, in 1662, and asking him for further directions about 
a powder that had been sent by the latter to the child, adding 
'*my daughter doth desire your worshipp to know whether 
you are willing shee should com to Conectacute, where shee 
may be neare you."- Before this, in 1658, an item appears 
in the accounts of the Commissioners of the United Colonies, 
regarding the Indian miissions here, of a payment to Mrs. 
Joanna Bland, "for healpfulness in Phisicke and Chirurgerie."' 
This was because there were no physicians on the Vineyard 
at that time, nor until the last quarter of that century. There 
were few educated professional practitioners in those days 
anywhere in New England, and the clergymen usually added 
this knowledge and function to their principal calling, and 
endeavored to heal both the souls and bodies of their flocks. 
The first known practitioner here was Thomas West, who 
came to Tisbury about 1673, and whose will disposed of 
"books and Surgery Instruments." He also combined the 
profession of law with this medical skill, which was not an 
unusual circumstance. In the same way. Pain Mayhew and 
Thomas Little, both of Chilmark in the first part of the next 
century, are found healing the sick, and if so desired it they 
would draw up wills or attend to other necessary legal business 

'3 Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., IV, 77. 

'Ibid., VI, 39. John Winthrop, Jr., was a famous amateur physician in his 
day, and his advice was sought by his friends in all the New England Colonies. 
^Records, Commissioners, etc., II, 205. 

495 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

which necessities required.^ Contemporaneously with them 
John Sanderson in Edgartown combined the practice of medi- 
cine and business of inn-keeper, and Solomon Bacon also in 
the same town at that period dispensed draughts, clysters, 
boluses, pills, and herbs, set fractures, and let blood. The 
practice of medicine was unrestricted to any class. Armed 
with Culpeper's Practice and somebody's Herbal, suffering 
humanity was at the mercy of neighborhood surgeons and 
self-commissioned physicians who could read the names of 
diseases, look up the symptoms, and then hunt out the nau- 
seous remedies detailed in the Herbal. Such an one is de- 
scribed in a list of remedies sent to John Winthrop : — 

For the yellow Jaundise or Jaunders — Boyle a quart of sweet milke, 
dissolve therein as much bay-salt, or fine Sal-peter, as shall make it brack- 
ish in taste; and putting Saffron in a fine linen clout, rubb it in to 
the Milke, untill the Milke be very yellow; and give it to the patient to 
drinke." ^ 

Or for an external application, the following was advised : — 

For paines in the Brest or Limmes: Weare a Wilde Catts skin on 
the place grieved. - 

When Richard Arey of Edgartown was sick unto death in 
1689, "with a violent pain in his small guts, attended with 
continual vomiting," he was treated with an "application of 
fried oats & the pain removed from his Body to his stomacke." 
This change of place but not the pain proved ineffectual, and 
the next line in the diary of Mr. Homes tells us when he was 
"burryed." Later on, in 171 5, Thomas Mayhew of Chilmark, 
third of the name, "had been for several yeares troubled with 
the distemper called the King's evil {i. e. Scrofula) by which 
he was brought neere the gates of Death," says Mr. Homes. 
At this time it is believed that there was no physician on the 
island, and in this situation the patient reverted to the native 
talent, the pawwaws whom his father had so vehemently 
denounced. "By some applications made to him by an In- 
dian doctor," says the diarist, "he recovered so far as that 
he was able to ride about and look after his affairs." Thus 
were the discredited pawwaws accorded recognition at last 
at the hands of their great opponents. "After some time," 
the account continues, "there came a doctor to the island 

'Pain Mayhew's "Commonplace Book" contains items for medical services, 
as "drawing tooth, i — ." Thomas Little was the son of a physician of Plymouth. 
- Packard, " History of Medicine," 20. 

496 



Life in Vineyard Towns During Colonial Times 

that thought the swelHng and pain in his legs might be removed 
by bathing and sweating, which preceded accordingly in some 
measures, but after some time the swelling proceeded upwardly 
and he was seised with an inwerd fever and shortness of breth 
which prevaild upon him till it carried him off."^ Who this 
"doctor" w^as that came to the island at that time is not known. 
He may have been only a peripatetic practitioner, as in a few 
years after we read of another Mayhew of Chilmark going 
to Rhode Island for the services of a physician. 

NATIVE "medicine MEN." 

The employment of the natives for their knowledge of 
natural remedies was undoubtedly the common custom, but 
there is not much record of such practice, as a matter of fact. 
Experience Mayhew speaks of one Hannah Nohnosoo, the 
daughter of the sachem Cheshachaamog, of Homes Hole, 
"having very considerable Skill in some of the Distempers to 
which human Bodies are subject, and in the Nature of many 
of those Herbs and Plants which were proper Remedies against 
them, she often did good by her Medicines among her Neigh- 
bours, especially the poorer sort among them, whom she 
readily served without asking them any thing for what she 
did for them. Nor did she only serve the Indians this way, 
but was, to my knowledge, sometimes imploy'd by the Eng- 
lish also. . . . Among the cases wherein she, by her Medi- 
cines, did good to her Neighbours, I shall particularly men- 
tion one only; Several Women, some English and some In- 
dians, being Divers Years after Marriage without the Blessing 
of Children, having Barren Wombs and dry Breasts, which 
Persons in a Married State are scarce ever pleased with, some 
of these Women applying themselves to the good old Hannah 
of whom I am now speaking, for help in Case that thus afflicted 
them, have soon after become joyful Mothers of Children."^ 

EPIDEMIC DISEASES. 

One reason for the absence of physicians as a part of the 
social life in the Vineyard in the early days was the general 
healthfulness of the island, a condition which it has main- 
tained even to this day. It is a natural sanitarium. In the 



*^ 'Homes, Diary. 

^Indian Converts, 165. 



497 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

course of time infectious and contagious diseases were intro- 
duced here and on the mainland, which required the skill of 
educated doctors to treat. Writing in 1662, a year of sickness 
throughout New England, Michael Wigglesworth, who had 
visited our island several years before, drops into verse to de- 
scribe the case : — 

New England, where for many years, 

You scarcely heard a cough 
And where Physicians had no work 

Now finds them work enough. 
Now colds and coughs, Rheums and sorethroats 

Do more & more abound; 
Now Agues sore & Feavers strong 

In every place are found. ^ 

The principal diseases to which our ancestors were sub- 
ject were smallpox, consumption, and the throat distemper, 
now known as diphtheria. The first named was the most 
disastrous, because at that time there was no proper way 
to check its ravages. Probably every other adult person was 
pock-marked, so prevalent did it become. 

INOCULATION FOR SMALLPOX. 

Inoculation for the prevention of it, as introduced by 
Lady Mary Wortley Montague into England in 1721, was 
not practised here for forty years, as far as known, though 
it was done in Boston soon after the first English experiments. 
It was nothing less than an actual inoculation of the virus 
from a case into the skin of a healthy person who desired to 
"take the pock," and after the practice had passed through 
the initial stages of popular disapproval, though advocated by 
such men as Cotton Mather and Benjamin Franklin, it grew 
to be the recognized method of having what they considered an 
inevitable disease. Doubtless many went from the Vineyard 
to the inoculation hospitals in Boston harbor to obtain the 
treatment. Among the earliest medical men to conduct such 
an establishment was Dr. Samuel Gelston, who had a hospital 
at the Gravelly Island near Nantucket. Tisbury was the first 
town on the Vineyard to try the experiment, and on Aug. 8, 
1763, voted that he "Be Allowed to Gary on and Practice 
Inoculation of the Small Pox in Squme Sutable Place at 

'God's Controversy with New England, a poem. 
498 



Life in Vineyard Towns During Colonial Times 

Homcses hole until it Appears Evident to the Town of Tis- 
bury that it is Prejudicial to the Interest of said Town." Be- 
sides agreeing to treat all cases of the disease which might be 
landed there, Gelston was further obliged to pay into the town 
funds six shillings for every person inoculated w^ho was not a 
resident of Tisbury/ >His contract was renewed the next 
year, while at the same time he was managing an establish- 
ment at Castle William in Boston harbor. There had been 
severe epidemics of this disease in Edgartown in 1737 and 
1738, during which one Dr. Matthews had died, and again 
in 1764, and this Gelston made application to the town of 
Edgartow^n in 1771 to erect one of his establishments on Cape 
Poge.- His proposal was declined at that time, but seven 
years later, in February, 1778, he again sought permission 
and it was granted. The location chosen was the one first 
suggested, and he proceeded to fulfil his designs, practised his 
art for several months, but failed to satisfy the people for 
some reason. In December of that year the town voted a 
disapproval of ''annoculation as it is now carried on at 
Capeoage," and gave Gelston notice to quit on or before the 
first of the following ]May. It is probable that the disease 
was spread by his methods, as the selectmen were appointed 
a committee to take measures to prevent the further spread 
of the disease in the village."^ 

There was an epidemic disease, know^n then as the "throat 
distemper," probably diphtheria, which broke out at Kingston, 
N. H., in the spring of 1735, and gradually spread over New 
England during the next few years, and later extended over 
all the colonies. The disease was very fatal, and several 
thousand deaths of young people in New England are charge- 
able to its ravages. It lingered for several years, and the 
appearance of it on the Vineyard in 1740 may be traced to 
the general dissemination of the contagion over the New Eng- 
land colonies by that time. 

'Tisbiiry Records, 183. 

'Gelston applied to the selectmen of Dartmouth, in 1772, for permission to erect 
a smallpox hospital in that town on "anjalaca island." (Ricketson, History of New 
Bedford, 322.) He was a tory, and on Jan. 22, 1776, the General Court voted that 
he be put under bonds for his disloyal behavior, and he made his escape to Rhode 
Island. Being subsequently captured, he was brought back to Watertown. He 
was described as of Nantucket, in a hand-bill promising a reward for his capture, 
"a short well set man; had on when he went away a reddish sheepskin coat, dressed 
with the wool inside, and a scarlet waistcoat." (Groton Historical Tracts, III, 422.) 

'Edgartown Records, I, 295, 314, 316-7. It was during this epidemic that Rev. 
Samuel Kingsbury died of smallpo.x Dec. 30, 1778. 

499 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

The diary of Rev. Mr. Homes gives us the names of the 
diseases which carried off his neighbors and friends during 
his time, before 1743, and we find the frequent mention of 
"mahgnant" fever, "putrid" fever, "pleurisy" fever, together 
with occasional notices of "iliac passion," "violent defluxion," 
and other symptomatic names which dp not tell us very clearly 
the real cause of death. Consumption, the "white plague" 
of New England, likewise finds frequent mention. 

BURIALS. 

The disposal of the dead was attended with little ceremony 
or waste of time by our ancestors. Usually within twenty- 
four hours of the time when the last breath had fled from the 
body the clods were falling on the coffin. According to our 
modern customs and views this would be heartless haste in 
hurrying the remains of our loved ones out of sight and under 
the ground. And yet their rapid interments had no such 
significance, nor were they accomplished so quickly for any 
purposes of utility, as for their lack of those modern adjuncts 
of funerals — the undertaker and embalmer, with their ar- 
tificial methods of preserving the features of the dead for 
public view and the body from processes of decay. The 
sole idea of our emigrant ancestors and their descendants for 
several generations was to trim all of their religious duties 
and functions to such a point of thinness that they would 
have no possible semblance, as in this particular instance, to 
the rites and ceremonies of the English Church. So the loved 
in life got short shrift in death. No funeral services were 
held nor prayers said. It savored too much of "Popery." 
As soon as the sad event occurred, neighbors and friends were 
selected to act as under-bearers, while the village carpenter 
was hurriedly constructing a pine coffin without ornament or 
lining to contain the corpse. This was then placed on a 
wooden bier, with arms, and at the appointed hour four bearers 
supporting it on their shoulders walked to the place of sepul- 
ture, being relieved at intervals by a shifting of the number. 
The dead were then actually borne by the living, and not, 
as now, driven, still less trotted, to their resting-places. The 
well-to-do and those high in station indulged in pall bearers. 
A black velvet or broadcloth pall with dependent tassels at 
the four corners was draped over the coffin, and the tassels 
were held by honorary pall bearers in the march to the grave. 

500 



Life in Vineyard Towns During Colonial Times 

The modern use of this term is applied to persons who bear 
the casket during any portion of a funeral ceremony, and is 
without the significance originally conveyed.* Burials on the 
Vineyard usually occurred in the late afternoon or evening, 
and often at night by the aid of torches. It contributed much 
to the gruesomeness of the entire proceedings. Scarves, gloves, 
and rings were presented on the occasion, with the same refer- 
ence to social and personal considerations. 

Hearses, as a means of conveying bodies to the cemetery, 
is of less than a hundred years duration.^ In 1824, "the blue 
bier" is mentioned at Edgartown as used first at the funeral 
of a person dying early in that year. 



DIVISIONS OF ESTATES. 

In their wills the early settlers gave away their real and 
personal belongings with great precision. Clothing, hats, 
shoes were disposed of by name to the beneficiaries. John 
Brown gave away his best feather bed to one, his next best 
to another; while Jane Jones, with similar detail, gave away 
her best petticoat, her next best petticoat to her daughters, or 
near relatives, according to age. And so most of the personal 
effects were passed on to surviving heirs or kin. 

In similar fashion the Probate Court would divide real 
estate. The property of Christopher Beetle was divided in 1 750 
somewhat as follows, among his six children : To one was set off 
half the lower rooms in the house and a third of the cellar; to a 
second one-half the upper rooms and a third of the garret; to 
the others the remaining portion of the rooms, cellar and gar- 
ret were similarly divided. When the Court got to the well, 
it gave the eldest son two shares and the rest a half of a third. 
Each was allowed to use the walk from the front door to the 
road-way, according to the respective value of each interest! 
It would seem from this that it would require of the occupants 
of the rooms and the users of the well and walk some pretty 
close mathematical calculations to determine how much half 
of a third of a well might be, and how many steps each could 
take on the walk. The fence was equally divided. In the 

^On the 7th of April, i8co, the Edgartown selectmen were instructed to obtain 
"at the expense of the town, as soon as conveniently may be provided, for the use 
of the town a decent pall for use of burials." (Edgartown Records, II., 83.) 

^The first use of a hearse in Plymouth did not occur until 1820 (Davis, Ancient 
Landmarks, 132). 

=;oi 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

division of the estate of Zaccheus Mayhew, in 1775, the ad- 
ministrators made the following minute provision for the 
widow: "the East front Room in the Dwelling house of the 
s'd Zaccheus, the Bed Room & Buttery adjoining, with the 
liberty of Baking and Washing in the Kitchen and Convenient 
room in the Cellar, and liberty of Water at the Well and of 
passing to and from the same, and liberty of carting and lay- 
ing her fire wood near s'd dwelling House." 

There is occasionally found in some ancient and dignified 
testament a provision which is rather ambiguous in its terms 
or application. Such an example occurs in the solemn will 
of Samuel Bassett of Chilmark, who makes this bequest: 
''I also give unto my said wife all the wood that she shall have 
occasion for or improve during her natural life and no longer." 
What use for wood she might have hereafter her death may 
not be so clear unless Samuel thought fires would be provided 
by another agency. 



MEMORIALS OF THE DEAD. 

There are not half a dozen gravestones now on the Vine- 
yard which bear date prior to 1700. The oldest stone is that 
marking the grave of Rev. John Mayhew in the West Tisbury 
cemetery, and is dated 1688. The oldest in Edgartown com- 
memorates the death of John Coffin in 1 7 1 1 , though one bears 
a still earlier date.^ The oldest stone in the cemetery on 
Abel's Hill, Chilmark, is 171 7, recording the death of Benjamin 
Mayhew, and the oldest in the Homes Hole cemetery is 1719, 
marking the grave of Elizabeth Chase. As far as can be judged, 
the earliest stones were imported from England, and perhaps 
cut there. They are probably of Welsh slate, and are of a 
finer quality of stone than the native variety, used here between 
1700 and 1800. It is thought that the stones of Simon Athearn 
and John Mayhew are examples of the imported stone. It 
can hardly be said that these stones reached any high artistic 
standard, and such elaboration of design as they disclose 
exhibits that awful gruesomeness with which the colonists in- 
vested everything in life and death. 

'This records the death and sepulture of Robert Stone, Senior, dated 1690, in 
the Tower Hill cemetery, but it is of a more recent and modern construction than 
the date indicated. The author has not identified this person as living here at that 
time. 

502 



Life in Vineyard Towns During Colonial Times 

OBITUARY POETRY. 

The inscriptions on the stones were usually surmounted 
by a crude and conventional "Death's Head," set in the midst 
of scroll work equally ungraceful and angular in design, and 
beneath this some mortuary verse intended to enforce the 
lesson of the uncertainties of this mortal life. Examples of 
this form of literary and theological composition on the Vine- 
yard may be cited here to show that our standards were not 
below the best efforts of the obituary bards on the mainland : — 

Here Francis lies, Departed but not lost; 

Like some Choice Flower Nipt by untimely Frost. 
When Jesus shall appear he'll shining Rise 

Like some Bright Star Beyond the AZURE skys. 



Here Abigai Lyes Earths Favorites 

That was so much Pris'd And Heavens Delights 

And five of her Infant Race Made so bv Saving Grace 



Stop my friends and drop your tears 
My dust lies slumbring in Saint Pears 
At Martinico interred I lie 
Weep for yourselves, all are to die 
Here I must lie, till Christ appears 
Depart my friends and dry your tears. 



Here you may see how sudden was my call 

For to resign my breath 
A warning it may be to all 

To be prepared for Death. 

On the gravestone of John Ferguson, in the West Tisbury 
cemetery, the following verse describes the cause of the death 
of this young person at the age of eleven years : — 

The oil of Vitriol he did taste 

Which caused his vitals for to waste 

And forced him to return again 

Unto the earth from whence he came. 

The attention to detail in this last verse leaves us in no 
doubt as to the nature of the illness which "carried him off," 
and in a measure compensates for the limping meter. 

And having thus followed our worthy forbears from the 
cradle to the grave, and erected a suitable memorial stone, 
with an inscription thereon testifying his virtues, it is the 
natural and fitting place to bring our cursory review of his 
life to a close. Much of it is sad and severe, and yet more of 

503 



History of Martha's Vineyard 

it is simple and satisfying. The almost ideal pastoral life on 
the Vineyard two centuries ago, mingled with the romance of 
those that ''go down to the sea in ships and have their business 
in great waters," makes a combination of breezes and bucolics 
almost unique. To us it may seem that they must have en- 
dured an existence painfully lacking in the comforts of life. 
It is safe to say that it only seems so to us. That they lived 
and loved in their day and generation, and extracted all the 
enjoyment out of life is reasonably certain. A hardy and 
splendid race of descendants testifies to this conclusion. If 
Squire Benjamin Skiff of Chilmark, a good representative of 
his time, who died in 171 7, could come back to earth and see 
us in our present day environment, with our electric lights, 
trolley cars, automobiles, steamboats, daily papers, bicycles, 
Sunday excursions, telephones and telegraphs, and all the 
other accompaniments of our modern life, doubtless he would 
hurry back to the gloom of his tomb on Abel's Hill, and piously 
exclaim, "From the pomps and vanities of this wicked world. 
Good Lord deliver me!" 








i-f-T in\ •} SO)- 3 I i\ 



/|«lvj' *««<*> P'i> "^K ■, 




Hull III' *^ 




GRAVESTONE OF REV. JOHN MAYHEW, 

WEST TISBURY CEMETERY. 

THE OI.DEST STONE ON THE VINEYARD. 



504 



APPENDIX 



JUDICIAL OFFICERS 



The following lists comprise the names of those persons 
who have been appointed or elected to offices connected with 
the courts of the County since its organization in 1683 to the 
present time. The dates indicate the year of assumption of 
office or the first appearance in the records. 



1685. 
1710. 
1726. 
1782. 



1686. 
1695. 
1702. 
1712. 

1713- 
1714. 
1722. 
1723. 
1740. 
1760. 
1762. 
1770. 
1771. 
1781. 

1784. 
1808. 
1810. 
1817. 



1714. 
1716. 
1732. 



REGISTERS OF DEEDS 

Matthew Mayhew 
Matthew Mayhew 
Enoch Coffin 
Samuel Smith 
Josiah Smith 
John Sprague Smith 
Tristram Holley 
L. C. Wimpenny 

TREASURERS 

Matthew Mayhew 
Benjamin Smith 
Matthew Mayhew, Jr. 
Benjamin Hawes 
Joseph Newcomb 
Thomas Harlock 
Enoch Coffin 
Ebenezer Allen 
Zaccheus Mayhew 
John Sumner 
Gershom Cathcart 
John Coffin 
Beriah Norton 
William Jernegan 
Jethro Atheam 
William Jernegan 
Thomas Jernegan 
William Jernegan 

CORONERS 

John Butler 
Benjamin Hawes 
William Hunt 



1762. Robert Allen 

1800. WiUiam Case 

CLERKS OF THE COURTS 

1685. Matthew Mayhew 

1690. Thomas Butler 
1703. Matthew Mayhew 

1722. Lemuel Little 
1733- Jabez Atheam 
1 76 1. James Atheam 

1775. Stephen Luce 

1801. Cornelius Marchant 
1807. John Cook 

1809. Cornelius Marchant 
Daniel Fellows 
Frederic P. Fellows 
Richard L. Pease 
Samuel Keniston 

SHERIFFS 

1683. Matthew Mayhew 

169 1. Thomas Harlock 
Thomas Trapp, Deputy 

1699. Joseph Norton 

Thomas Look, Deputy 
1 701. Ebenezer Allen 
1 7 14. John Allen 

1723. Samuel Bassett, Deputy 
1733. Eleazer Allen 

1735. Thomas Mayhew 
1743. John Norton 
1 76 1. John Norton 
1772. WiUiam Mayhew 

1776. Peter Norton 
Benjamin Smith 



507 



History of Martha's Vineyard 



JUSTICES OF THE COURT OF COMMON 
PLEAS AND GENERAL SESSIONS 
OF THE PEACE. 



1683. 


Matthew Mayhew, Chief 




Justice 




Richard Sarson 




Thomas Daggett 




Thomas Mayhew 


1692, 


James Allen 


1696. 


John Coffin 


1699. 


Benjamin Skiffe 


1702. 


Joseph Norton 


1713- 


John Worth 




Pain Mayhew 


1715- 


Ebenezer Allen 




Enoch Coffin 


I7I8. 


Zaccheus Mayhew 


1722. 


John Chipman 


1733- 


John Allen 




Samuel Norton 


1748.' 


John Sumner 


I76I. 


Ebenezer Smith 




John Newman 




Nathaniel Hancock 




James Athearn 


1762. 


Matthew Mayhew 


1764. 


Josiah Tilton 


I77I. 


Joseph Mayhew 


1773- 


Shubael Cottle 


1776. 


Beriah Norton 


1785- 


Thomas Cook 


1790. 


Nathan Bassett 




Benjamin Bassett 


1798. 


Matthew Mayhew 


1799. 


William Butler 


1802. 


William Mayhew 




Zebulon Allen 


1806. 


Rufus Spaulding 


1807. 


John Davis 




Ichabod Norton 



SPECIAL JUSTICES 

1730. John Worth 

Benjamin Smith 

1734. Ebenezer Norton 
Benjamin Smith 



1742. Jabez Athearn 
Samuel Bassett 
1757. Ebenezer Norton 
1 76 1. Josiah Tilton 

1 77 1. John Worth 

• 

king's ATTORNEYS 

1673. Thomas West 

1691. Benjamin Smith 

1733. Thomas Little 

1757. Jonathan Allen 

COUNTY ATTORNEYS 

1780. Benjamin Smith 
1799. Wendell Davis 

KEEPERS OF H. M. GAOL 

1727. James Hamhn 

1 73 1. Benajah Dunham 

1747. John Norton 

181 2. James Banning 

COURT OF PROBATE AND INSOLVENCY 
JUDGES 

1698. Matthew Mayhew 

1 7 10. Benjamin Skiffe 

1 7 18. Pain Mayhew 

1733. Zaccheus Mayhew 

1760. Matthew Mayhew 
1775- James Athearn 
1816. George Athearn 
1839. Theodore G. Mayhew 
1872. Joseph T. Pease 
1897. Chas. G. M. Dunham 

REGISTRARS 

1696. Matthew Mayhew 

1 7 18. Jabez Athearn 

1 761. James Athearn 
1775. Benjamin Smith 
1782. Thomas Cooke 
1820. CorneHus Marchant 
1838. Barnard C. Marchant 

1852. Hebron Vincent 

1853. Richard L. Pease 

1854. Hebron Vincent 
1890. Beriah T. Hillman 



508 



REPRESENTATIVES TO THE GENERAL COURT 



Since the charter of William and Mary, when Martha's 
Vineyard was incorporated into the Province of the Massa- 
chusetts Bay, in 1691, the following named persons have 
represented this County in the General Court: — 

[The letters in parentheses ( ) after each name refer to the towns represented.] 



1692. 


Simon Athearn, (t). 


1722. 


Lemuel Little, (e). 




Joseph Norton, (e). 




Ebenezer Alien, (c). 


1693. 


Not represented. 


1723- 


John Norton, (e). 


1694. 


Matthew Mayhew, (e). 


1724. 


John Norton, (e). 


1695. 


Matthew Mayhew, (e). 


1725- 


John Norton, (e). 


1696. 


Matthew Mayhew, (e). 


1726. 


John Norton, (e). 


1697. 


Simon Athearn, (x). 




Benjamin Smith, (e). 




Matthew Mayhew, (e). 


1727. 


Benjamin Smith, (e). 


1698. 


Thomas Mayhew, (c). 




Paine Mayhew, (c). 


1699. 


Not represented. 


1728. 


Benjamin Smith, (e). 


1700. 


Not represented. 


1729. 


Not represented. 


I70I. 


Not represented. 


1730. 


Not represented. 


1702. 


Not represented. 


1731- 


Not represented. 


1703- 


Benjamin Smith, (e). 


1732. 


Simeon Butler, (e). 


1704. 


Not represented. 


1733- 


Enoch Coffin, (e). 


1705- 


Not represented. 




Zaccheus Mayhew, (c) 


1706. 


Not represented. 


1734. 


Not represented. 


1707. 


Benjamin Skiffe, (c). 


1735- 


Enoch 'Coftln, (e). 


1 70S. 


Benjamin Skiffe, (c). 


1736. 


Paine Mayhew, (c). 


1709. 


Benjamin Skiffe, (c). 


1737- 


John Norton, (e). 


I7I0. 


Benjamin Skiffe, (c). 


1738. 


Not represented. 


I7II. 


Benjamin Skiffe, (c). 


1739- 


Not represented. 


I7I2. 


Matthew Mayhew, (e). 


1740. 


John Norton, (e). 


1713- 


Matthew Mayhew, (e). 


1741. 


Not represented. 


I7I4. 


Not represented. 


1742. 


John Norton, (e). 


1715- 


Benjamin Skiffe, (c). 




Zaccheus Mayhew, (c) 


I7I6. 


Not represented. 




Jabez Athearn, (t). 


I7I7. 


Benjamin Skiffe, (c). 


1743- 


Not represented. 


I7I8. 


Paine Mayhew, (c). 


1744. 


John Norton, (e). 




John Norton, (e). 


1745- 


John Sumner, (e). 


I7I9. 


Paine Mayhew, (c). 


1746. 


Not represented. 




John Norton, (e). 


1747- 


Not represented. 


1720. 


Paine Mayhew, (c). 


1748. 


Not represented. 


I72I. 


Enoch Coffin, (e). 


1749- 


Not represented. 




Zaccheus Mayhew, (c). 


1750- 


Not represented. 




Joseph Newcomb, (e). 


1751- 


Not represented. 



509 



History of Martha's Vineyard 



1752. Not represented. 1769. 

1753- Not represented. 1770. 

1754. Not represented. 

1755. Not represented. 

1756. Not represented. i77i- 
1757- John Norton, (e). 1772. 

1758. John Norton, (e). 

Matthew Mayhew, (c). i773- 

1759. John Newman, (e). 

1760. John Newman, (e). i774- 
Matthew Mayhew, (c). 

James Athearn, (t). 

1 761. John Norton, (e). 

Jonathan Allen, (c). 1775- 

James Athearn, (t). 

1762. Not represented. 

1763. Not represented. 

1764. John Norton, (e). 

James Athearn, (x). 1776. 

1765. James Athearn, (x). 

1766. John Norton, (e). 

James Athearn, (x). i777- 

Jeremiah Mayhew, (c). 

1767. Jonathan Allen, (c). 1778. 
James Athearn, (x). 

1768. William Jernegan, (e). i779- 
Matthew Mayhew, (c). 

James Athearn, (x). 



Not represented. 

Thomas Cooke, (e). 

Jonathan Allen, (c). 

James Athearn, (x). 

Not represented. 

Thomas Cooke, (e). 

Matthew Mayhew, (c). 

Jonathan Allen, (c). 

James Athearn, (x). 

(Provincial Congress held at 
Salem) : 

Joseph Mayhew, (c). 

Ransford Smith, (x). 

(Provincial Congress held at 
Watertown) : 

Beriah Norton, (e), 

James Allen, Jr., (c). 

Nathan Smith, (x). 

Thomas Cooke, (e). 

Joseph Mayhew, (c). 

Shubael Cottle, (x). 

No representation on ac- 
count of the Revolution. 

No representation on ac- 
count of the Revolution. 

No representation on ac- 
count of the Revolution. 



Since the adoption of the State Constitution in 1780, this 
county has been represented in General Court annually by 
the following named persons, of whom 39 were from Edgar- 
town, 20 from Chilmark, 40 from Tisbury, three from Cottage 
City, one from West Tisbury and one from Gay Head, viz: — 

Not represented. 
Benjamin Allen, (x). 
Wm. Jernegan, (e). 
Benjamin Allen, (x). 
Benjamin Bassett, (c), 
Wm. Jernegan, (e). 
Benjamin Allen, (x). 
Matthew Mayhew, Jr., (c). 
Matthew Mayhew, Jr., (c). 
Wm. Jernegan, (e). 
Matthew Mayhew, Jr., (c). 
Matthew Mayhew, Jr., (c). 
Beriah Norton, (e). 
Matthew Mayhew, Jr., (c). 
Matthew Mayhew, Jr., (c). 



1780. 


Not represented. 


1788. 


1781. 


Not represented. 


1789, 


1782. 


Not represented. 


1790. 


1783- 


Samuel Norton, (c). 


1791. 




Ebenezer Smith, (e). 


1792. 




Shubael Cottle, (x). 




1784. 


Benjamin Bassett, (c). 


1793- 




Shubael Cottle, (x). 


1794. 


1785- 


Benjamin Bassett, (c). 
Benjamin Allen, (x). 


1795- 




Wm.. Jernegan, (e). 


1796. 


1786. 


Matthew Mayhew, (c). 
Benjamin Allen, (x). 


1797. 




Wm. Jernegan, (e). 


1798. 


1787. 


Not represented. 


1799. 



510 



Representatives to the General Court 



1800. 


Matthew Mayhew, Jr., (c). 


1832. 


Eliakim Norton, (x). 




Wm. Mayhew, (e). 




Leavitt Thaxter, (e). 


I80I. 


Matthew Mayhew, Jr., (c). 


^&33- 


Harrison P. Mayhew, (c), 




Wm. Mayhew, (e). 




Leavitt Thaxter, (e). 


1802. 


Not represented. 




Daniel Look, (x). 


1803. 


Benjamin Allen, (t). 


1834. 


Ephraim Mayhew, (c). 




Wm. Mayhew, (e). 




Chase Pease, (e). 


1804. 


Wm. Worth, (e). 




John Holmes, (x). 


1805. 


Jethro Worth, (e). 


1835- 


Ephraim Mayhew, (c). 




Shubael Dunham, (t). 




Timothy Daggett, (e). 


1806. 


Thos. Cooke, Jr., (e). 




Leavitt Thaxter, (e). 




Shubael Dunham, (t). 




Daniel Look, (x). 


1807. 


Thos. Cooke, Jr., (e). 


1836. 


Stephen Skiff, (c). 




John Davis, (t). 




Wm. Coffin, (e). 


1808. 


Not represented. 




Timothy Daggett, (e). 


1809. 


Martin Pease, (e). 




Thomas Dunham, (x). 




John Hancock, (t). 


1837. 


Mayhew Cottle, (c). 


I8I0. 


Thos. Jemegan, (e). 




Thomas Bradley, (x). 


I8II. 


Simon Mayhew, (c). 




Wm. Coffin, (e). 




Samuel Wheldon, (e). 




Daniel Davis, (e). 




John Hancock, (t). 




Wm. Davis, (x). 


1812. 


Robert Hillman, (c). 


1838. 


Mayhew Cottle, (c). 




Timothy Daggett, (e). 




Thomas Bradley, (x). 


I8I3. 


Timothy Daggett, (e). 




Abraham Osborne, (e). 


I8I4. 


Not represented. 


1839. 


Benjamin Davis, (e). 


1815. 


Not represented. 




Chase Pease, (e). 


I8I6. 


Not represented. 




Thomas Bradley, (x). 


I8I7. 


Not represented. 


1840. 


Daniel Flanders, (c). 


I8I8. 


Not represented. 




Daniel Davis, (e). 


I8I9. 


Not represented. 




Elihu P. Norton, (e). 


1820. 


Peter Norton, (t). 




Bartlett Allen, (x). 


I82I. 


John Hancock, (c). 




Asa Johnson, (x). 




Wm. Jernegan, (e). 


1841. 


Heman Vincent, (c). ; 


1822. 


Not represented. 




Abraham Osborne, (e). 


1823. 


Wm. Jemegan, (e). 


1842. 


Richard L. Pease, (e). 


1824. 


Not represented. 




Walter Hillman, (x). 


1825. 


Not represented. 


1843. 


Heman Vincent, (c). 


1826. 


Daniel Fellows, Jr., (e). 




Alfred Norton, (x). 




John P. Norton, (t). 


1844. 


Not represented. 


1827. 


Daniel Fellows, Jr., (e). 


1845. 


Smith Mayhew, (c). 


1828. 


Harrison P. Mayhew, (c). 




Joseph Mayhew, (e). 




Charles Butler, (e). 




Matthew P. Butler, (x). 


1829. 


Charles Butler, (e). 


1846. 


Stephen Skiff, (x). 




John P. Norton, (x). 


1847. 


Samuel Osborne, (e). 


1830. 


Smith Mayhew, (c). 




Jonathan Luce, Jr., (x). 




Leavitt Thaxter, (e). 


1848. 


Sirson P. Coffin, (e). 




Daniel Look, (t). 


1849. 


Heman Arey, (e). 


I83I. 


Smith Mayhew, (c). 




Wm. A. Mayhew, (x). 




Eliakim Norton, (x). 


1850. 


Heman Vincent, (c). 




Leavitt Thaxter, (e). 




Heman Arey, (e). 


1832. 


Smith Mayhew, (c). 




Jonathan Luce, Jr., (x). 



511 



History of Martha*s Vineyard 



185 1. Heman Vincent, (c). 1876. 
Sirson P. Coffin, (e). 1877. 
Wm. S. Vincent, (t). 1878. 

1852. Wm. Vincent, (e). 1879. 
Charles B. Allen, (x). 1880. 

1853. Samuel Keniston, (e). 1881. 
Charles B. Allen, (x). 1882. 
Thomas Barrows, (x). 1883. 

1854. Ephraim Mayhevv, Jr., (c). 1884. 
Geo. R. Marchant, (e). 1885. 
David Tilton, Jr., (x). 1886. 

1855. Samuel G. Vincent, (e). 1887. 
Hiram Nye, (x). 1888. 

1856. John Vincent, (e). 1889. 
Nathan Mayhew, (x). 1890. 

1857. John Vincent, (e). 1891. 
Henry Bradley, (x). 1892. 

1858. Not represented. 1893- 

1859. Joseph W. Holmes, (x). 

i860. Alexander Newcomb, (x). 1894. 

1861. Allen Tilton, (c). 1895. 

1862. Edgar Marchant, (e). 1896. 

1863. Wm. H. Sturtevant, (x). 1897. 

1864. Wm. H. Sturtevant, (x). 1898. 

1865. Samuel Osborne, (e). 1899. 

1866. Daniel Davis, (e). 1900. 

1867. Daniel Davis, (e). 1901. 

1868. Charles Bradley, (x). 1902. 

1869. Charles Bradley, (x). 1903- 

1870. John Wesley Mayhevv (c). 1904. 

1871. Nathaniel M. Jernegan, (e). 1905. 

1872. Nathaniel M. Jernegan, (e). 1906. 

1873. David Mayhew, (x). 1907. 

1874. David Mayhew, (x). 1908. 

1875. Beriah T. Hillman, (c). 



Richard HoUey, (e). 
Richard Holley, (e). 
Benjamin Clough, (x). 
Benjamin Clough, (x). 
Stephen Flanders, (c). 
Tristram Cleveland, (cc). 
Tristram R. Holley, (e). 
Tristram R. Holley, (e). 
Everett Allen Davis, (x). 
Everett Allen Davis, (x). 
Beriah T. Hillman, (c). 
Oliver E. Linton, (cc). 
Edwin D.Vanderhoop, (gh) 
Cornelius B. Marchant, (e). 
CorneHus B. Marchant, (e). 
Ulysses E. Mayhew, (x). 
Ulysses E. Mayhew, (x). 
Asa Smith, (c). 
Wm. A. Morse, (x). 
Otis Foss, (cc). 
Otis Foss, (cc). 
Otis Foss, (cc). 
Otis Foss, (cc). 
Wm. S. Swift, (x). 
Wm. S. Swift, (x). 
Benjamin G. CoUins, (e). 
Benjamin G. Collins, (e). 
Benjamin G. Collins, (e). 
Herbert N. Hinckley, (x). 
Herbert N. Hinckley, (x). 
John E. White, (e). 
Ulysses E. Mayhew, (wx). 
Ulysses E. Mayhew, (wx). 
Ulysses E. Mayhew, (wx). 



From the above it will be noted that for a period of two 
hundred and sixteen years the county has not been repre- 
sented at forty sessions. The longest continuous hiatus was 
1746 to 1756 inclusive, but since 1859 there has been no break 
in the yearly representation of this county to the General Court. 



512 



MILITIA LISTS, 1757 



The following lists of those males able to bear arms in 
the several towns in the year 1757 are the earliest ones of this 
character now known to be in existence. They are valuable 
to establish the residences of persons living on the Vineyard 
one hundred and fifty years ago, and quite worth the space 
as a census of the able-bodied citizens at that date. The 
"alarm list," as distinguished from the militia list, comprised 
those who were ready to go to the front upon an "alarm" 
sent out by the Colonel. 

The lists are arranged alphabetically for convenience of 
reference, but the spelling of the names and other words fol- 
low the original literally. 



[Mass. Arch. XCV, 209] 

A List of the Foot Company of Melitia in Edgartown under the 

Command of 

Lieft Colonell JOHN NORTON, {Captain) 
Elijah Butler, Sergeant Benjamin Peas, Sergeant 

Daniel Vincent, Sergeant Solomon Norton, Sergeant 

Joseph Daggett, Drummer; IVIatthew Mayhew, Drummer 



Atsatt, John 
Atwood, John 
Butler, Abner 

Cornelius 

Daniel 

Elijah, Jr. 

John 

Matthew 

Nicholas, Jr. 

Samuel 

Thomas 
Coffin, Benjamin 

David 

Daniel 

Richard 



PRIVATES 

Covell, James, Jr. 

Jethro 

Joseph 

Matthew 

Micajah 

Timothy 
Claghom, Benjamin 

Thomas, Jr. 

William 
Crosby, Lot 
Cunningham, John, Jr. 

Thomas 
Chase, Joseph 
.Cleveland, Joseph 
Dunham, David 



Dunham, Ebenezer 

Elijah 

Hezekiah 

Nathan 

Seth 
Daggett, Brotherton 

Ebenezer 

George 

Prince 

Thomas, Jr. 
Davis, David 
Fish, Henry 
Fish, James 

Thomas, Jr. 
Haden, Prince 



513 



History of Martha's Vineyard 



Huxford, Joseph 
Hammett, Robert 
Holmes, John 
Joy, Ebenezer 
Jarnikins, William 
Jenkins, Lemuel 
Luce, Barnabas 

Christopher 

Paul 
Marchant, Abisha 

John, Sr. 

John, Jr. 

Seth 

Silas 
Mackelroy, William 
Norton, David 

Elijah 

Elisha 

Henry 

Ichabod 

Jabez 

John 

John, Jr. 

Joseph 

Shobal 



Norton, Seth 

Silas 

William 
Neal, Thomas 
Norris, Thomas 
Norton, Beriah 

Cornelius 

Timothy 
Palmer, Amiziah 
Pease, Abisha 

Benjamin, Jr. 

Daniel 

Ephraim 

Fortunatus 

James 

Joseph, Jr. 

Peter 

Prince 

Shobal 

Stephen 

Timothy 

William 
Roberd, William 
Ripley, Cornelius 

Joseph 



Smith, Benjamin 

Ebenezer, Jr. 

Elijah 

John 

Joseph 

Samuel 

Samuel, Jr. 

Thomas 

Timothy 
Shaw, James 
Stuard, Samuel 

Timothy 
Sumner, John, Jr. 
Tesker, William 
Vinson, Benjamin 

John 

Joseph 

Nathaniel 

Samuel 

Thomas, Jr. 

William 
Wheldon, Samuel 
Wiswall, Samuel 
Wood, Jeremiah 
Yamons, Silas 



[Mass. Arch. XCV, 211] 

An ALARM LIST of the Melitia in Edgartown, under the 

Command of 



JOHN NORTON, Lieft. Coll. 



Arey, Thomas 
Beetle, Christopher 
Burgess, Luce 
Bunker, Jonathan 
Butler, Ebenezer 
Cofi&n, Samuel 

Abner 

John 
Cousens, John 
Cunningham, John 
Dunham, Shoball 

Benajah, Jr. 
Daggett, Benjamin 

Thomas 
Fish, Thomas 
Finlay, Samuel 
Harper, John 



Kelley, Lemuel 
Luce, Henry 

Matthew 
Marchant, Cornelius 
Newman, John 
Norton, Bayes 

Enoch 

Peter 

Nathan 

Isaac, Jr. 

Timothy, Jr. 

Judah 

Silvanus 

Isaac, Sr. 

Stephen 
Peas(e), Joseph 

Malatiah, Jr. 



Peas(e), John 

Seth 

Thomas, Jr. 

Malatiah 

Matthew 

Beriah 
Ripley, Peter 
Russell, Pelatiah 
Sumner, John, Esq. 
Smith, Ebenezer, Esq. 
Sq(u)ier, John 
Stuard, Daniel 
Vinson, Joseph 

Barnabas 

Abner 
Wiswall, Ichabod 

John 



514 



Militia Lists 

[Mass. Arch. XCV, 210] 
A True List of the Foot Company in Tisbury, excepting those 

WHO ARE EXEMPl'ED FROM MILITARY MuSTER. 

(GERSHOM CATHCART) Captain. 

Thomas Look, Sergeant John Luce, Sergeant 

Joseph Merry, Sergeant Ransford Smith, Sergeant 

Thomas Butler, Drtimmer; Joseph Cathcart, Drummer 



Athearn, Abijah 

Jabez, Jr. 

Simon 
Allen, Thomas 
Butler, John 
Burgess, Jonathan 
Chase, Benjamin 

Jonathan 

Samuel 
Crosby, John 
Crowell, Benjamin 

Samuel 
Cartwright, Bryant 
CHfford, Jacob 
Cottle, Shobal 

Seth 
Daggett, John 

Isaac 

Peter 

Seth 
Dunham, Gershora 

John 
Foster, Jonathan 

Milton 

William 
Gray, Isaiah 
Hancock, Josiah 

Nathaniel, Jr. 

Russell 
Harden, Shubael 
Hammett, Jonathan 
Hatch, Samuel 



PRIVATES 

Hatch, Eleazer 
Hillman, Timothy 
Lewis, Samuel 
Larsha, John 
Luce, Abraham 

Adonijah 

Abijah 

Anthony 

Beriah 

George 

Hezekiah 

Israel 

Jacob 

Josiah 

Jonathan, Jr. 

Litchfield 

Malatiah 

Obed 

Peter 

Robert 

Reuben 

Roland 

Stephen 

William 

Zaccheus 
Look, Daniel 

John 

Joseph 

Noah 

Seth 

Stephen 
Lumbert, Benjamin 



Lumbert, Elisha 

Gideon 

Lemuel 

Moses 

Timothy 
Manter, Belcher 

Jabez 

Jeremiah 

Jonathan 
Mayhew, John 

Malatiah 
Norton, Shubal 
Osborn, Samuel 
Rand, Caleb, Jr. 

Thomas 

John 
Rogers, Matthias 

Robert 

Thomas 
Swain, Benoni 
Smith, Joseph 

Matthew 

Nathan 

WiUiam 
Whelden, John 
Waldron, Joshua 

Nathan 

Thomas 
Weeks, Samuel 

Samuel, Jr. 

William 



Note. — The name of Gershom Cathcart does not appear as " Captain," but as 
he was a militia captain at that period it is inserted in brackets under the assump- 
tion that the omission was accidental, or the document incomplete. The company 
must have had a captain. 



515 



History of Martha's Vineyard 



[Mass. Arch. XCV, 210] 

The alarm LIST, drawn by Mr. James Atharn, Clerk of the 
Foot Company in Tisbury. 



Allen, Ebenezer 
Butler, DaAid 

Shubael 
Case, Barnard 
Cathcart, Robert 
Cottle, Silvanus 
Chase, Isaac 

Thomas 
Cohoon, William 
Foster, Benjamin 



Gray, Samuel 
Hancock, Nathaniel 
Look, Benjamin 

Elijah 

George 
Luce, Isaac 

Joseph 

Timothy 
Lumbert, Samuel 
Manter, George 



Manter, Whitton 
Newcomb, Baise 
Norton, Eliakim 
Rand, Caleb 
Robinson, Jacob 
Rogers, Nathaniel 
Wass, Wilmot 
West, Elisha 
Frank 



A true List by me Jas Athearn, Clerk March 7th Annoq. Dom: 1757. 
Attested before me Zach^ Mayhew Justice of the Peace 



[Mass. Arch. XCV, 208] 

A List of all the Men Belonging unto the Company of the Militia 
WITHIN the: Town of Chilmark, who are to appear at 
AN Alarm under the Command of 

ZACCHEUS MAYHEW, Colonel 

Fortunatus Mayhew, LeijtenH 

Zaccheus Mayhew, Ensign 

Eliaship Adams, Sergearnt John Basset, Sergearnt 

Uriah Tilton, Sergearnt Josiah Tilton, Sergearnt 



Adams, Mayhew 
Allen, James 

James, Jr. 

Jethro 

Josiah 

Robert 

Samuel 

Silvenas 
Armstrong, William 
Bassett, Barachiah 

Cornelius 

Nathaniel 

William 
Boardman, Rev. Andrew 
Burgess, Shubael 
Cottle, Abishai 

Benjamin 

John 



PRIVATES 

Clark, Matthew 
Daggett, Solomon 
Dunham, Daniel 

Zephaniah 
Foster, Edward 
Hillman, Benjamin 

David 

Henry 

John 

Joseph 

Samuel 

Silas 

Stephen 
Hatch, Benjamin 

Timothy 
Hunt, Samuel 
Jones, Daniel 

Ebenezer 



Lock, Jonathan 
Luce, Levi 
Lothrop, Thomas 
Mayhew, Josiah 

Jeremiah 

Matthew 

Nathan 

Nathan, Jr. 

Pain 

Samuel 

Seth 

Simon 

Thomas 

Timothy 

Zachariah 
Megee, John 

John, Jr. 
Mott, Samuel 



516 



Nickerson, Samuel 
Norton, Daniel 

Jacob 

Sylvester 
Pease, Shubael 

Sylvanus 
Robinson, Isaac 
Redman, Micah 
Smith, Shobal 
Skiff, Benjamin 



Militia Lists 

Skiff, James 

Nathan 

Joseph 

Stephen 

John 
Steward, William 
Tilton, Beriah 

Elisha 

John, Jr. 

Joseph 



Tilton, Isaac 

Matthew 

Nathan 

Peter 

Reuben 

Salathiel 

Silas 

Siranah (Cyrano) 

WiUiam 
Winpenney, William 



Col. Zaccheus Mayhew's attested Return, dated March 2nd, 1757 

pr WILLIAM BASSETT, Clerk 



517 



THE ARMY 



The following list of persons belonging or credited to 
the Vineyard represents, as far as obtainable, the names of 
the persons who served in the army during the Civil War, 
1861-65, with a record of then: Regimental and Company 
assignments. Many names in this list are those of non-res- 
idents and foreigners who received bounties from the several 
towns for filling their respective quotas. Most of these may 
be readily distinguished, but they are included as part of the 
record of the Vineyard in this War. The list has been com- 
piled by the author from the original records in the Adjutant 
General's Office, Boston, Mass., and it is believed to be as 
complete, as well as authentic, as it is possible to make it from 
the material available. 



* Name 


1) 

< 


Credited to 


Reg't 


Co. 


Remarks 


Adams, Wm. C. 


Tisbury 


45 th 


H 




Anderson, Nils 


30 


Tisbury 


nth 


H 




Atheam, Eliaship A. 




Tisbury 


45th 


H 




Barnes, John 




Edgartown 


42nd 


D 


Of Virginia 


Bash, James 


35 


Tisbury 


5th 


F 


Cavalry. 


Beetle, Edward E. 


22 


Edgartown 


3rd 


F 




Benson, David W. 


32 


Tisbury 


3rd 


C 


Cavalry [at Boston 


Beaufort, Charles 


23 


Tisbury 


3rd 


C 


Alien. Artillery. Enlisted 


Bliss, Edward 


21 


Chilmark 


42nd 


H 




BoUen, Charles 


26 


Tisbury 


56th 


F 




Boswell, Joseph P. 




Chilmark 


43rd 


K 




Bowles, Thomas 




Tisbury 


42nd 


C 


Of Rhode Island. 


Boyd, James 




Tisbury 


42nd 


C 




Bradley, Henry 


19 


Tisbury 


38th 


H 




Brown, John 




Edgartown 


42nd 


G 


Mariner. Alien. 


Budlong, Frank L. 


28 


Tisbury 


4th 


E 


Sergeant, Cavalry. 


Bunker, Elihu M. 


22 


Edgartown 


40th 


D 




Buswell, James E. 


28 


Edgartown 


3rd 


F 




Butler, Hebron Vincent 




Edgartown 


2nd 




Rhode Island Battery. 


CahiU, Hugh 


30 


Tisbury 


28th 


A 


[1863 


Carr, John 


26 


Edgartown 


4th 


K 


Port Hudson, La., June 14, 


Clark, Leonard 


21 


Edgartown 


I St 


H 


Of Connecticut. 


Cleaveland, Thos. D. 


23 


Edgartown 


58th 


E 




Cleaveland, Chas. W. 


32 


Edgartown 


3rd 


E 


Corporal. 



518 



The Army 



Name 

Coffee, John M. 
Coombs, Isaiah S. 
Cornell, Enoch C. 
Covell, Frank 
Crocker, Gilbert H. 
Crowell, Barzillai 
Crowell, Jerry W. 
Curran, Edward 
Curtis, James W. 
Dart, Carl 

Davenport, Peleg D. B. 
Delahunt, James 
Devine, Patrick 
Dexter, Thos. 
Diamond, James 
Dindy, John 
Dow, Samuel H. 
Dowling, B. S. C. 
Eastman, John 
Ellis, John R. 
Ellis, Wm. H. 
Evans, Benjamin F. 
Failey, IVIichael 
Fall, James 
Fields, John 
Filley, Chas. C. 
Fisher, Calvin 
Fisher, Cyrus 
Fisher, Geo. L. 
Fisher, John P. 
Gahegin, Thos. 
Geils, Jerod 
Getchell, James H. 
Giacomo, Gusevio 
Gleason, Jos. H. 
Gorman, Wm. 
Gorman, James 
Gordon, Chas. 
Gorse, Arthur 
Gracy, David 
Gray, Geo. 
Gregory, Samuel D. 
Griffin, Michael 
Grinnell, Oliver C. 
Gromar, Henry 
Hall, John 
Hamblin, Cyrus 



24 



20 



Credited to 

Tisbury 

Edgartown 

Edgartown 

Tisbury 

Tisbury 

Tisbury 

Tisbury 

Tisbury 

Edgartown 

Edgartown 

Tisbury 

Tisbury 

Edgartown 

Edgartown 

Chilmark 

Edgartown 

Tisbury 

Edgartown 

Tisbury 

Edgartown 

Edgartown 

Tisbury 

Edgartown 

Tisbury 

Tisbury 

Tisbury 

Edgartown 

Edgartown 

Edgartown 

Edgartown 

Edgartown 

Tisbury 

Tisbury 

Tisbury 

Chilmark 

Chilmark 

Edgartown 

Tisbury 

Tisbury 

Edgartown 

Edgartown 

Chilmark 

Tisbury 

Gosnold 

Tisbury 

Tisbury 

Chilmark 



Reg't 


Co. 


28th 


A 


42nd 


D 


ISt 


H 


42nd 


G 


42nd 


H 


20th 


I 


3rd 


C 


42nd 


C 


.■5th 


D 


ISt 


K 


25th 


I 


3rd 


K 


48th 


H 


47th 


D 


5th 


I 


ISt 


B 


3rd 


C 


i8th 


K 


42nd 


G 


40th 


D 


42nd 


D 


6th 


C 


48th 


H 


42nd 


E 


5th 


C 


19th 


A 


28th 


C 


2nd 


H 


28th 


C 


3rd 


F 


I St 


D 


3rd 


C 


42nd 


C 


42nd 


C 


42nd 


H 


42nd 


H 


42nd 


I 


31st 


H 


45th 


I 


42nd 


I 


42nd 


D 


42nd 


H 


48th 


H 


24th 


G 


45 th 


H 


2nd 


A 


ISt 


c 



Reuarks 



AHen. 
Alien. 



Cavalry, 

Of Rhode Island. 

Cavalry. 

Of Connecticut. 

Unassigned. 
Alien. 

Cavalry. 

Of Connecticut. Mariner. 

Cavalry. 



Of New York. 

Veteran Reserve Corps. 

Alien. 

Alien. 

Cavalry. 

First Lieutenant. 

Andersonville Prison, 1864 



Cavalry. 

Alien. 

Of New Hampshire. 

Alien. 

Enlisted Boston. 

AHen. 
Alien. 
Alien. 
Third Inf., Reg. Army. 

Alien. 

Mariner. Alien. 



519 



History of Martha*s Vineyard 



Name 



Hammond, John W. 
Harrington, Wm. H. 
Hatham, John 
Heft, John 
Hillman, Beriah T. 
Hillman, Benj. 
Hillman, Warren T. 
Hinckley, Ambrose S. 
Hobart, Albert I. 
Holmes, Samuel 
Howe, Wm. W. 
Howland, James N. 
Johnson, John 
Johnson, Peter 
Kenney, Edward 
Kilcup, John W. 
Lane, Salmon B. 
Lahiffe, Timothy 
Larrabee, Geo. H. 
Leady, John 
Lewis, Edward R. 
Lietch, Robert 
Luce, Asa R. 
Luce, Benjamin N. 
Luce, Edward D. 
Luce, Franklin W. 
Luce, John N. 
Luce, Leander 
Luce, Lewis P. 
Main, James W. 
Malady, Thos. 
Mathews, Thos. 
Meara, Sherman T. 
Mayhew, Caleb D. 
Mayhew, John S. 
Mayhew, John W. 
Mayhew, Joseph B. 
Mayhew, Timothy 
Mayhew, Wm. Brandon 
Merry, Wm. C. 
Millbank, John 
Milligan, Chas. 
Moore, William 
Morse, Edmund B. 
Mussey, Geo. B. 
McCaulley, Peter 
McCollum, John L. 



Credited to 



Tisbury 

Edgartown 

Edgartown 

Tisbury 

Chilmark 

Tisbury 

Chilmark 

Tisbury 

Tisbury 

Tisbury 

Tisbury 

Tisbury 

Tisbury 

Gay Head 

Edgartown 

Tisbury 

Tisbury 

Edgartown 

Edgartown 

Edgartown 

Tisbury 

Edgartown 

Tisbury 

Tisbury 

Chilmark 

Tisbury 

Edgartown 

Tisbury 

Tisbury 

Tisbury 

Tisbury 

Edgartown 

Tisbury 

Chilmark 

Edgartown 

Chilmark 

Chilmark 

Chilmark 

Tisbury 

Tisbury 

Tisbury 

Tisbury 

Edgartown 

Edgartown 

Edgartown 

Edgartown 

Tisbury 



Reg't 



3rd 
40th 
42nd 

3rd 

431'd 
38th 

43rd 
3rd 
45 th 
42nd 
45th 
40th 
56th 
44th 

I St 

42nd 
48th 

I St 

ISt 
2ISt 
48th 

3rd 
20th 
24th 

i8th 
41st 
3rd 
41st 
42nd 
6ist 
42nd 
43rd 
ist 
58th 
43rd 
3rd 
3rd 
40th 
32nd 

I St 

2nd 

54th 
45th 

ISt 

48th 
45th 



Co. 



Remarks 



Of Mattapoisett. 

Alien. 
Cavalry. 



Corporal. 
Cavalry. 

Alien. 



Credited to Boston. [Army 
Engineer Corps, Regular 
Credited to Boston. 

Alien. 

Assistant Surgeon. 

First Lieutenant. 

AHen. 

Cavalry. 

Enlisted Edgartown. 



[1863. 
Died at Baton Rouge, La., 
Of Maine. Alien. 



Rhode Island Infantry. 



Cavalry. 
Cavalry. 

Illinois Infantry. 
Artillery. 



Cavalry Sergeant. 
Alien. 

Musician. 



520 



The Army 



Name 


< 


Credited to 


Reg't 


Co. 


Remarks 


McGinty, Anthony . 




Chilmark 


22nd 


I 




Mclrney, Thos. 


19 


Tisbury 


2nd 


K 


Cavalry. 


McKenney, Thos. F. 




Edgartown 


42nd 


C 


Enhsted Boston. 


McKenna, Bernard 




Tisbury 


42nd 


C 


Of Connecticut. Alien. 


Newhard, Francis 




Tisbury 






Ah en, Unassigned. 


Nicholson, Angus G. 




Tisbury 


42nd 


B 


Alien. 


Nickerson, I^ucas M. 


19 


Tisbury 


45th 


H 




Norton, Damon Y. 


34 


Edgartown 


45th 


D 




Norton, Francis 


35 


Edgartown 


3rd 


G 




Norton, Frank 


34 


Edgartown 


2nd 


E 


Artillery. 


Norton, Shubael M. 


23 


Tisbury 


3rd 


F 


Sergeant of Artillery 


O'Brien, Cornelius 


18 


Tisbury 


1 2th 


I 


Also 39th. 


O'Brien, John 




Edgartown 


47th 


I 


Ahen. 


O'Connell, James 




Edgartown 


48th 


H 


Alien. 


O'Leary, Timothy 


45 


Tisbury 






Veteran Reserve Corps. 


O'Shaughnessy, James 




Edgartown 


42nd 


D 




Osborne, John 




Tisbury 


42 nd 


C 




Packard, Davis H. 




Tisbury 


45th 


G 




Peak, William 




Tisbury 


45th 


H 




Pease, Francis, Jr. 


21 


Edgartown 


40th 


D 




Pease, Wm. W. 


42 


Tisbury 


4Sth 


H 




Pent, Samuel 




Edgartown 


38th 


H 


Lieutenant of Cavalry. 


Phillips, John 




Chilmark 


42nd 


H 




Quinn, John 


24 


Chilmark 


42nd 


H 




Ripley, Alonzo 


26 


Edgartown 


40th 


D 




Ripley, Jos. A. 


21 


Edgartown 


3rd 


F 




Roberson, Chas. 




Tisbury 


56th 


K 


Enlisted Boston. 


Rose, Alfred P. 




Gay Head 


23rd 


U 


U. S. Colored Troops. 


Scotchard, Jos. 


27 


Tisbury 


4th 


E 


Killed at Petersburg, Va. 


Shute, Richard G. 


18 


Edgartown 


40th 


D 


Musician. 


Simons, John 


26 


Tisbury 


2nd 


E 




Smith, Benjamin 


22 


Edgartown 


40th 


D 




Smith, Chauncey C. 


22 


Edgartown 


I St 


H 




Smith, Christopher 




Edgartown 


42nd 


D 




Smith, Elisha M. 


18 


Tisbury 


20th 


I 


Gettysburg, July 3, 1863. 


Smith, Eliakim M. 


23 


Edgartown 


58th 


E 


d. Salisbury Prison, 1864. 


Smith, James 


31 


Edgartown 


3rd 


F 




Smith, John 


39 


Tisbury 


I St 


G 


Cavalry. 


Smith, Marcus M. 


22 


Edgartown 


I St 


G 




Smith, Wm. W. 


26 


Edgartown 


I St 


H 




Sneffle, William 




Edgartown 


I St 


E 




Swain, John T. 


18 


Tisbury 


45th 


H 




Thompson, William 


20 


Edgartown 


42nd 


H 


Alien. 


Thompson, David S. 


44 


Chilmark 


20th 


A 


Musician. 


Thompson, James 




Tisbury 


42nd 


D 




Tilton, Cornelius L.] 


21 


Chilmark 


I St 


C 




Tilton, James N. 


27 


Edgartown 


3rd 


F 





521 



History of Martha's Vineyard 



Name 


bC 

< 


Credited to 


Reg't 


Co. 


Remarks 


Todd, Samuel 


40 


Tisbury 


Sth 


F 


Cavalry. 


Totten, Wm. A. P. 


19 


Edgartown 


ISt 


H 




Trembo, Christopher 


40 


Tisbury 


19th 


C 


Also Trembley. 


Vincent, Chas. M. 


21 


Edgartown 


40th 


D 


Second Lieutenant. 


Vincent, Frederick M. 


24 


Tisbury 


3rd 


L 


ISt Serg't; d. Ship Id., 1862 


Vincent, Francis P. 


30 


Edgartown 


3rd 


F 




Vincent, Albert C. 




Edgartown 


23rd 


D 


Credited to New Bedford. 


Vincent, James H. 


20 


Tisbury 


45 th 


H 


Corporal. 


Waldron, Jos. B. 


20 


Tisbury 


45 th 


H 




Weeden, Warren D. 


31 


Chilmark 


43rd 


K 


Of North CaroHna. 


West, Thos. A. 


22 


Tisbury 


3rd 


C 


Sergeant of Cavalry; k. at 
Winchester, 1864. 


West, Wm. D. 




Chilmark 


43rd 


C 




Wilbur, Henry C. 


22 


Edgartown 


58th 


E 




Wilbur, James 


28 


Tisbury 


20th 


I 




Wilbur, Jos. H. 


19 


Edgartown 


3rd 


F 




Widdup, John 




Tisbury 


3rd 




Cavalry. Enlisted Boston. 


Wilson, Chas. B. 




Edgartown 


42nd 


D 


Ahen. 


Wilson, Geo. E. 




Tisbury 


42 nd 


K 


Alien. 


Worth, Jethro 


25 


Edgartown 


3rd 


F 




Wright, WilHam 


43 


Tisbury 


5th 


F 


Cavalry. 



The above lists show a total of 185 men credited to Mar- 
tha's Vineyard, divided among the towns as follows: Tisbury 
88; Edgartown 73; Chilmark (including Gay Head 2 and 
Gosnold i) 24. This does not correspond, except in the case 
of Tisbury, with the statements in the text, pp. 425-8, taken 
from Shouler's ''Massachusetts in the Civil War." The 
original returns of the Selectmen to the Adjutant-General were 
examined and checked by the author, and the result is as near 
as can be obtained when the system of quotas and credits in 
vogue at that time is considered. Towns were required to 
furnish certain numbers when a "draft" was made, and if 
the quota was not forthcoming from the legal residents, the 
Selectmen resorted to the payment of bounties and bought the 
necessary number from other places. Frequently our town 
officials went to Boston and bid for them among the transients 
of the metropolis, in competition with other towns, at the 
recruiting booths. In this way the strange names in the above 
lists are accounted for, and their connection with the Vineyard 
thus legalized. This confusion was increased in many cases 
where towns exceeded their limit and the State authorities 
credited this surplus to places that were deficient, and such 



522 



The Army 

men were considered as belonging to their home town while 
filling a vacancy elsewhere. Frequently in the confusion of 
these large drafts no complete record of such transfers and 
credits would be made, and the result has been to create com- 
plications in the muster rolls and town credits that defy ad- 
justment. This explanation may serve to show why it is 
impossible to establish a correct list of soldiers properly be- 
longing to a given town during the war. 



523 



NAVAL SERVICE 



The following list of persons belonging or credited to the 
Vineyard represents, as far as obtainable, the names of persons 
who served in the navy during the Civil War, with a record 
of the services of each. In addition to these persons, there 
were enlisted in the navy by the State at large and credited 
to the towns, 33 for Edgartown, 30 for Tisbury. The author 
is indebted to the late Dr. Winthrop Butler for much of the 
following information, particularly that relating to the char- 
acter of the service rendered. The list includes a few persons 
now resident who did not live on the island during the war. 



Name 


Residence 


Rating 


Ships and Service 


Adlington, Frank 


Edgartown 


Master's Mate 




Anderson, George 


Edgartown 






Anthony, Joseph P. 


Gay Head 


Seaman 




Armstrong, Thos. 


Edgartown 


Seaman 




Barry, William 


Tisbury 






Beetle, David S. 


Edgartown 


Ensign 


"Emma" 


Bell, Joseph 


Edgartown 






Bradley, Henry, Jr. 


Tisbury 


Paymaster's Clerk 


"Katahdin" 


Bradley, Leander D. 


Tisbury 


Paymaster 


"Katahdin," Gulf 
Squadron 


Bunting, James H. 


Edgartown 


Ensign 


"Ethan Allen" 


Butler, Hebron V. 


Edgartown 


Master's Mate 




Butler, Winthrop 


Tisbury 


Ass't Surgeon 


" Saratoga &Komet" 
Gulf Squadron 


Cannon, Loring 


Tisbury 


Ensign 


Captured Sabine 
Pass, Texas 


Casey, James 


Tisbury 






Chadwick, John P. 


Edgartown 


Ensign 




Chirgwin, Thos. H. 


Edgartown 






Cleaveland, Chas. W. 


Edgartown 






CofEn, Edwin 


Edgartown 


Lieutenant 


"Midnight," S. A. 
Squadron 


Cooper, Thos. G. 


Gay Head 


Seaman ^ 




Cooper, Thos. J. 


Tisbury 






Cooper, Thomas 


Edgartown 






Couch, Geo. 


Tisbury 


Master 


"Adger" 


Courtney, Chas. 


Edgartown 


Master 




Crocker, Frederick 


Edgartown 




"Clifton" 



524 



Naval Service 



Name 


Residence 


Rating 


Ships and Service 


Crosby, James E. 


Tisbury 






Crovvell, Jared W. 


Tisbury 




Also served in Army 


Crowell, Jos. M., Jr. 


Tisbury 


Seaman 


"Shawsheen," Cap- 
tured and conf. 
Southern Prison 


Curtis, James C. 


Edgartown 






Daggett, John T. 


Tisbury 






Dempster, George 


Tisbury 






Dexter, Benjamin F. 


Tisbury 






Dexter, Rodolphus W. 


Tisbury 




''Delight" 


Dixon, James W. 


Tisbury 






Dunham, Hiram N. 


Edgartown 


Seaman 


'' Mohican, "credited 
to New Bedford 


Earl, Wm. B. 


Edgartown 


Ensign 




Fisher, Alonzo D. 


Edgartown 


Seaman 


•'JMohican" 


Fisher, Brazillai 


Edgartown 


Seaman 




Fisher, Chas. F. 


Edgartown 


Master's Mate 




Fisher, Geo. L. 


Edgartown 


Seaman 




Fisher, John P., 2d 


Edgartown 


Seaman 




P'isher, Thos. A. 


Edgartown 


Seaman 




Foss, Otis 


Tisbury 


Seaman 


"Fearnought" 


Foster, Henry D. 


Tisbury 


Ensign 


"Baruna," with 
Farragut at New 
Orleans 


Freeman, Robert 


Tisbury 


Seaman 




Gabrielson, Eric 


Edgartown 


Seaman 


Later Capt.R.C.S. 


Gibbs, Albion P. 


Edgartown 


Ensign 




Hammett, Hiram 


Chilmark 


Seaman 


"Tobago" 


Hancock, John 


Edgartown 


Seaman 


"Hedden" 


Hart, Matthew F. 


Edgartown 


Seaman 




Hedden, Edward F. 


Edgartown 


Ass't Engineer 


Later in R. C. S. 


Holmes, Jos. Wheldon 


Tisbury 


Pay Master 


"Dunbarton" 


Howes, Willis 


Tisbury 


Master 


"Roanoke" &"Van- 
derbilt" 


Johnson, Nathan 


Gay Head 


Seaman 




Johnson, Sidney 


Gay Head 


Seaman 




Kidder, Benj. H. 


Edgartown 


Surgeon 


"Colorado." At 
capture Fort Fish- 
er; now Medical 
Director U. S. N. 


Lewis, Alan G. 


Edgartown 


Seaman 




Littlefield, Aaron D. 


Edgartown 


Master 


"Georgia" 


Luce, Irving 


Tisbury 


Seaman 




Manning, Thomas 


Chilmark 


Seaman 




Marchant, Cornelius 


Edgartown 


Ensign 


"Genessee" 


Marchant, Geo. W. 


Edgartown 






Marchant, Wm. B. 


Edgartown 


Ensign 





525 



History of Martha's Vineyard 



Name 


Residence 


Rating 


Ships and Service 


Morse, John O. 


Edgartown 


Master 


"R. R. Cuj-ler" 


Morse, Stephen H. 


Edgartown 




"Hunchback" 


Nevers, Daniel 


Edgartown 






Norton, Andrew J. 


Edgartown 






Norton, Chas. 


Edgartown 


Master 




Norton, Ichabod 


Edgartown 


Ass't Paymaster 




Norton, Lott 


Edgartown 






Norton, Martin V. B. 


Edgartown 






Norton, Shubael C, Jr. 


Edgartown 


Ensign 




Norton, Wm. H. 


Gay Head 


First class boy 


"Rhode Island" 


Orswell, Geo. B. 


Eidgartown 


Ass't Engineer 




Osborne, Abraham 


Edgartown 






Osborne, John 


Edgartown 






Owen, Leander C. 


Tisbury 


Ensign 


"Seneca" with N.A. 
Squadron, cap- 
ture Fort Fisher 


Peakes, Thos. M. 


Edgartown 


Ensign 


"Ethan Allan" 


Pease, Geo. W. 


Edgartown 


Ensign 




Pease, Henry, Jr. 


Edgartown 


Ensign 




Pease, Isaac D, 


Edgartown 


Ensign 




Pease, John N. 


Edgartown 


Ensign 




Pease, Peter 


Edgartown 


Ensign 




Pease, Wm. H. 


Edgartown 


Master 




Ripley, Benj. H. 


Edgartown 


Seaman 




Roberts, Wm. H. 


Edgartown 






Robinson, James B. 


Tisbury 


Ensign 


"Queen" 


Smith, Chas. G., Jr. 


Tisbury 


Master's Mate 


"Penguin" and 
"Tuscarora" 


Smith, Eliakim 


Edgartown 






Smith, Geo. A. 


Edgartown 


Ensign 




Smith, Ivory H. L. 


Edgartown 


Seaman 




Smith, John M. 








Smith, Roland 


Edgartown 






Spencer, John 


Tisbury 






Stapleford, James W. 


Edgartown 


Ensign 




Starks, Daniel 


Edgartown 


Master's Mate 




Sylva, George 


Oak Bluffs 


Seaman 




Thaxter, Leavitt 


Edgartown 


Seaman 




Tilton, Walter H. 


Chilmark 


Master's Mate 


"Fredonia" 


Vanderhoop, Edwin D. 


Gay Head 


Landsman 


"Mahaska" 


Vincent, Francis W. 


Edgartown 






Vincent, Wm. T. 


Edgartown 


Master's Mate 


"Canandaigua" 


Wade, Henry Clay 


Tisbury 


Master 


Commanding Strs. 
"Gertrude" and 
"Yucca". With 
Farragut at New 
Orleans. Died 
(yellow fever) at 
Pensacola. 



S26 



Naval Service 



Name 


Residence 


Rating 


Ships and Service 


Waldron, Ebenezer 


Edgartown 


Seaman 




West, Abner 


Tisbury 


Master 


"Potomska." At 
fight bet. "Mon- 
itor" & "Merri- 
mac." 


West, Nathaniel P. 


Tisbury 


Lieut-Commander 


Was in Mexican 
War. Retired dur- 
ing Civil War. 


West, Wm. L. 


W. Tisbury 


Seaman 


"Mississippi" 


Wilbur, Calvin H. 


Edgartown 






Winn, Edward A. 


Chilmark 






Worcester, Edward 


Chilmark 






Worth, Jethro 


Edgartown 


Ensign 





527 



INDEX OF NAMES 



The following index includes all names of persons occur- 
ring in the text or foot notes. The names of those persons 
found in the appendix are not indexed for the reason that 
they are either arranged alphabetically, or are easily consulted 
in the form adopted for their presentation. 



ABERCROMBIE 305 310 311 
312 

ADAMS 210 288 318 400 427 
428 438 489 

ADDINGTON 186 189 

ALEXANDER 78 206 

ALLEFONSCE 77 

ALLEN 74 158 169 190 191 
195 212 261 266 274-6 
282-3 287 311 318-9 324 
330 334-6 339 342 349 354 
375 380 385 395 412-15 
436 482-5 489 

AMHERST 311-13 

ANGEL 65 

ANDRE 367 370-2 375 379 
382 393 

ANDROS 75 133 137 162 
164-6 169 170 178-9 269 

APTHORP 255 

ARCHDALE 137 

ARCHER 65 

AREY 135 156 158 392 487 
496 

ARMSTRONG 308-9 312-13 
317 

ASHURST 180 251-2 485 

ASPINWALL 124-6 

ATHEARN (Athan, Atturn) 
28 155-6 158 160 166 168- 
170 179 180 182 184-5 
188-9 190-1 197-201 203 
205 210 243 259 280-1 266 
273-6 280-1 291-3 310 316 
324 332-3 339 344 346 349 
357 362 376 385-6 394 413 
478 482-3 485-6 493 502 

ATSATT 348-9 352 

BABCOCK 364 409 

BACKMAN 208 

BACON 60 351 496 

BAGLEY 429 

BAKER 350-1 

BANCROFT 211 368 

BANKS 230 

BARBERIE 206 

BARCLAY 255 

BARDSLEY 104 

BARKER 262 453 456 

BARNARD (see Bernard) 483 

BARRINGTON 60 

BARTER 108 113-4 

BASSETT 49 262 271 273 
282 311-2 316-19 324 330 
342-4 346-50 353-6 361 375 
385 395 482 502 

BAXTER 138 332 350-1 355 

BAYES 129 135 156 158 

BAYLIES 256-7 426 456 

BEEKMAN 206 



BEERS 84-5 101 

BEETLE 353 391 498 501 

BELCHER 269 316 

BERNARD (see Barnard; 210 
211 274 276 317-8 

BERRY 350 

BESSEY 74 

BINYON 351 

BLACKFORD 350-1 

BLAEU 76 78 

BLAND 85 132 135 138 234 
237 432 495 

BLANEY 268 

BLANKENSHIP 424 

BLOCK 66 76 

BLOME 76-7 79 

BLOSSOM 350 

BOBINOR 206 

BOTERO 77 

BOURNE 283 316 

BOWNDE 106 

BRACHER 110-11 

BRADDOCK 309 

BRADLEY 212 287-8 426-7 

BRATTLE 314 

BREBOEUF 47 

BRENTON 37 47 56 151 

BRERETON 25-7 30-1 41 46 
62 64-5 76 79 

BREWER 320 

BRIDGE 313 317 

BRIDGMAN 106 

BRIGGS 78 

BRIMHALL 350 

BROCKHOLLS 172 

BRODHEAD 59 141 

BROMFIELD 483 

BROWN 76 376 478 

BROWNING 91-2 95-9 

BUNKER 309-11 341 348 442 

BURCHARD (Birchard. Ber- 
cher) 75 132-3 135 155-6 
158-60 168 473 

BURGESS 308-9 324 337 341 
348 350-1 410 

BURKE 450 

BURNETT 206 

BUTLER 74 90 93 132-3 135 
156 158 185 190 207-8 264 
273 275 308-13 315 318-19 
329 337 341 344 346-7 349 
351 353-4 357 387-8 390-2 
415 417 427 433-4 444 472 

CABOT 77 424 
CADILLAC 75 
CAHOON 351 
CAMP 341 
CARLETON 398-400 
CASE 281 292 318 349 
CASTLEREAGH 416 



CATHCART (Kithcart) 198 
305-7 314 463 482-5 

CHALOWNES 68 87 

CHAMPLAIN 65-6 76-7 87 

CHAPMAN 309 

CHARLES I 72 80 115 

CHARLES II 139 146 164 174 

CHASE 158 185 188-9 313 
316-7 320 341-2 349 353-4 
356 408-10 414 452-3 
459-60 463-4 482-3 ■ 502 

CHRISTIAENSEN 66 76 

CHURCH 83 298 301 428 

CHURCHILL 351 

CLAGHORN 349 352 388 445 
463 

CLARENDON 139 140 

CLARK 191 319 342 352 

CLAUDIA (Queen) 59 77 

CLAY 482 

CLEVELAND 190 337 341 
348 350 352-3 392 415 426 
444 456 

CLIFFORD 342 353 

CLINTON 368-70 383 386 393 
396-8 

CLOUGH 449 

COBB 280 

CODE 106 

CODMAN 135-6 156 158 167 

COFFIN 187 203 259 261-2 
275 287 318 337-8 341 
348-9 353 388 390-1 415 
417 426 441 446-7 449 502 

COLLIER 457 

COLLINS 335-6 

COLVE 154 

COMSTOCK 448 

CONVERSE 260 

COOKE 212 270-1 281-2 284-5 
324 329 347 378 385 388 
391 417 

COOPER 49 52-4 474 

CORLETT 237 

CORNWALLIS 371 400 

COTTLE 280 324 339 341-2 
344 346-9 351-3 357-8 
361-2 366 376 385 394-5 
413 417 453 

COTTON 33-4 45 236 239-42 

COVENS 350 

COVELL 135 158 320 341 
348 352 355 391 470 

COX 342 353 

CRADDOCK 114-5 117-22 126 

CRAFT 369 

CREUXIUS 79 

CREVECOEUR 79 441 443 
455 

CROCKER 350-1 378 

CROMWELL 219 230 45S-S 



529 



History of Martha's Vineyard 



CROSBY 353 

GROSSMAN 341 34S 353 390 

444 
CROSSTHWAITE (Cross- 

thout) 156 158 167 
CROWELL 309 342 351 353 

357 415 
CUNNINGHAM 341 348 353 
CURLEY 466 
CUSHING 279 
CUTLER 415 
CUTTS 143 386 

D' ABBEVILLE 79 

DAGGETT (Doget, Dogget) 
84 99 101 132-3 135-6 154 
158 165-7 174 'l78'185 200 
212^235-264-7 308-11 314 
317-19 330 337 341-2 348 
351 353-7 375 385 389 391 
410 414-5 417 422 424 431 
444 449 455-6 464 470 473 
482 485-6 

DAMON 378 

DANFORTH 237 250 482-3 

DAVIS 212 228 285-7 317-8 
337 341 348-9 352 3S8 
390-1 417 426 501 

DAVISON 74 82 122-3 426 

DEANE 419 

DE BRY 77 

DEE 77 

DE LAET 34 78 

DENNISON 484-5 

DERMER 70 87 

DES BARRES 34 79 

DEVENS 256 456 

DEWITT 154 

DEXTER 424 

DIAS 415 423-4 

DICKERSON 323 

DIGBY 402 

DILLINGHAM 319 

DIMOCK (Demik) 364 483 

DODSWORTH 142 

DONGAN 75 129 173-4 176-7 
180 251-2 

DONKIN 375-6 378 

DOOMER (Diimmer) 118 

DORMONT 310-11 

DOUGLASS 29 453 

DOWNAM 53 

DOWNS 342 417 

DRAPER 341 351 415 

DUDLEY 45 76 78 122 

DUER 139 

DUNCUM 124 

DUNHAM (Donham) 212 
285-6 313 337 341-2 348 
352-4 378 390-1 394 407 
422 436 444 480 482 487 

EATON 130 

EARLE 464 

EDDY (Edy) 135 158 200 

EDWARD VI 105 ' 

ELDRIDGE 351 

ELLIOT (Eliot) 43 53 55 75 

213 218 223 240-1 244-5 

253 398 481 
ELTON 105 
EMMONS 405 
ENDICOTT 74 119 
ESTAING 368 

FANSHAWE 369 371-2 
FARRIS 351 

FERDINAND (Prince) 370 
FERGUSON 503 
FESSENDEN 237 
FISH 350 390 392 
FISHER 212 424 426 429 448 

450 
FLANDERS 56 348 352 
FLETCHER 187 191-4 300 



FOGG 386 

FOLGER 75 132-3 135 226-7 

234-7 262 400 443 
FORD 413 

FORRESTER 137 481 
FORRETT 79 81-4 89 137 155 
FOSTER 319 
FRANCIS 341 348 353 
FRANCIS I 59 
FRANKLIN 400 498 
FRANQUELIN 77 
FREDERICK 349 353 
FREEMAN 33 90 92 283 365 

369 452 
FROTHINGHAM 337 
FRYE 311 
FULLER 320 350 378 

GAGE 210 351 
GALLION 118 
GAMBIER 369 371 
GARDINER (Garner) 67 143 

145 165-6 184 187 191 259 

354 356 415 
GARRETT 228-9 
GEE 135 432 
GELSTON 498-9 
GENNOR 223 

GEORGE III 255 325 329 352 
GERMAINE 369 
GERRISH 351 
GEYER 259 
GIBBINS 123 
GIFFORD 428 

GILBERT 65 76-7 110-11 229 
GILLSON 337 
GLOVER 104 118 
GODFREY 220 231 311 351 
GOODELL 292 
GOODSPEED 350 
GOOKIN 33 37 57 75 86 94 

114 119 122 228 236 
GORGES 34 67-8 70 72 80-1 

83 85 97 131-2 136-8 140 

142 144 146 264 
GORHAM 350-1 
GOSNOLD 20 23 28 56 59-62 

64 65 72-4 76-7 
GRANNIS 365 
GRANT 458 
GRAY (see Grey) 287 330 353 

450 
GREEN 351 411 
GREY (see Gray) 367 369-72 

375-6 378-83 393-7 399 401 
GROUT 465 

HAKLUYT 77 

HALE 405 

HALL 350-1 

HALLETT 350 

HALLOCK 256 

HAMLIN 317 

HAMMOND (Ramon) 106 350 

HAMMETT (Hamit) 313 315 

318 337 341 354 428 
HANCOCK 318 428 
HARDING (Harden) 312-3 

317 320 342 354 407 415 

427 456 
HARIOT 53 
HARLEY 68 

HARLOCK 135 158 178 190 
HARLOW 351 
HARRISON 206 
HASLETON 337 
HATCH 318 350-1 357 
HATHAWAY 378 
HAWES (Haws) 350 483-6 
HAWLEY 256 
HAZARD 132 
HENNEPIN 77 
HENRY II 77 
HIGGINS 316 
HIGGINSON 50 233 



HILLMAN (Helman) 308-9 

316 319 337 342 348 350 

353-4 361 412 414 
HINCKLEY 109 152 246-7 
HINMAN 408 
HOARE 106 111 314-5 
HOBART 471 
HOBSON 68 
HOHEIM 77 
HOLDER 481 484 
HOLLEY 312-13 317 337.341 

348 353 358 
HOLMES 377-S 
HOMES 23 471 478 484 49C-7 

499 
HOPKINS 409 
HORN 317 
HOUGH 153 
HOWE(S) 119 122 350-1 

354-5 367-70 379 
HUBBARD 75-6 79 
HULL 96 295 464 
HULSART 421 
HUNT 67 70 87 
HUSSEY 133 
HUTCHINSON 105 402 
HUXFORD 332 387-8 390 

415 437 

INCE 228 

JAMES I 70 488 

JAMES II 177-8 181 

JANSSON 78 

JAY 323 400-2 

JEFFERSON 416-7 438 

JENCKES 490 

JENKINS 269 388 390 411 

436 446-7 
JERNEGAN 212 262 271 281 

287 304 329 380 387 389 

390 392 417 422 426 
JOHNSON 74-5 117 127 309 

341 
JOLIET 77 
JOLLIFF(E) 121-2 
JONES (Joanes) 123 135 156 

158 350 404 408-9 417 501 
JOSSELYN 60 75 

KARLSEFNE 58 
KELLEY 351 353 388 392 
KENDALL 34 91 441 455 
KENISTON 426 
KENNEDY 206 208 
KIDDER 288 
KING 106 142 
KINGSBURY 338 378 390 

444 499 
KITHCART (see Cathcart) 
KNOWLES 320 

LA COSTA 77 

LAFAYETTE 408 

LAMBERT (Lumbert, Lum- 
bard) 320 330 342 354 408 
415 435 448 484 489 

LANGLEY 110 

LANE 466 

LASSEY 354 

LAURENS 400 

LAWRENCE 421 

LEA 60 

LECHFORD 74 85 87 94 490 

LEECH 415 

LEISLER 178 194 299 

LEMERY 491 

LEONARD 395 397 

LE SCARBOT 77 

LESLIE 371 

LEUSDEN 241 

LEVERITT 156 

LEWIS 309 

LIMERICK fEarl of) 174 251 
485i 



530 



Index of Names 



LINSCHOTEN 77 

LINZEE (Linzey) 331 364 

LITTLE 411 495-6 

LIVERMORE 279 

LOBDELL 341 

LODGE 322 

LOKS 77 

LONG 83 

LOOK (Luke) 200 310 311 

315 317 319 333 342 349 

353-4 356 394 
LOPAR 431 
LORD 383 

LOUDON rEarl of) 309 
LOUIS XVI 367 
LOVELACE (Loflas) 75 142-3 

145 147-50 153-4 164 168 

180 205 243 
LOVELL 120 
LUCAS 212 
LUCE 156 158 212 282 285 

304 313 315 317-18 320 

330 333 335-7 341-2 348-9 

351-4 356-7 392 408-11 

414-15 427 444 489 
LUISA (Queen) 59 76 77 
LYNDE 279 

MACKENZIE 178 

MACLAY 404-5 407 419 

MACY 112 262 433 

MADISON 417 

MAKER 350 

MANCHESTER 342 354 

MANLEY 408 

MANTER 185 209 212 281 
309-11 313 315 318 342 
353-4 356 375 412 414 417 
428 450 

MARCH 301 

MARCHANT (Merchant) 284- 
285 337 341 348-9 353 388 
390 392 406-9 417 423-4 
426 447 

MARION 203 

MARKHAM 371 

MARTIN 16 

MARVIN 419-20 442 445 

MARY (Queen) 178-9 181 189 
259 326 

MATHER 76 79 168 180-1 
239 241 249 251-2 270 498 

MATSON 350 

MATTHEWS 69 112 350 499 

MAVERICK 231 

MAYHEW (Mayhow. May- 
liewe, Mayhue, Mayhoe, 
Maiho, Maio, Maihewe, 
Maiheu, Maiewe, Maho, 
Mahoe, Mavoo, Mao, Mavo, 
Maou, Mahu) 33-5 37 42-3 
45 52-4 73-5 80-9 91-9 101 
104-6 108-38 140-55 157-62 
164-79 181-91 195-233 235- 
241 243-59 261-69 272 274 
280-2 290 296-S 304-9 312- 
320 324 331 333 339-42 
344 346-7 349-51 353 361 
366 376 378 395-6 409 417 
427-8 432 434-5 472-3 
477-8 480-6 492 494-7 502 

MEEDER 337 341 348 

MEGEE 312-13 315-17 319 
406 408-9 

MELLEN 450 

MENZIES 407 

MERCATOR 59 77 

MERRITON 65 

MERRY 115 158 342 351 
353-4 356 435 456 

MILLS 429 

MILTON 424 482 

MOLINEAUX 77 

MONTAGUE 498 

MONTCALM 305 309 312-13 
315 



MORSE 212 354 450 
MORTON 31 70 75 229 
MULLER 47 
MUNSTER 77 
MURRAY 371 

NEAL 320 341 348 

NEIFERT 23 466 

NEIGHBOR 474 

NEWCOMB 186 188 190 299 
342 415 

NEWMAN 92 318 

NEWPORT 65 

NICANI 351 

NICHOLAS 104 

NICHOLLS (Nvcoll) 140-3 
147-8 161 183 

NICHOLSON 178 301 350-1 

NICKERSON 341 348 353 
361 365 

NILES 386 

NORRIS 212 313 317 341 407 
448 

NORTON 21 95-6 99 101 135 
156 167 182 185 188-91 
195 212 247 262 268-9 275 
279 291 305-9 312-15 318- 
320 332 334 337 339-42 
344 346 348-54 361 366 
372-79 383 385 387-8 390- 
393 395-403 405 407 410 
417 422 424 428 441 444 
450 470 

NOTT 408 

NUNEZ 429 

NYE 355 364-5 

OGILBY 76 79 
O'HARA 398 
OLIVER 138 268 
ORTELIUS 77 
ORROCK 406 
ORTELIUS 77 

OSBORNE 212 349 429 347 
OTIS 314 331 340 376 380 
382-3 405 484 

PACKARD 496 

PADDOCK 432 

PAINE (Pavne) 74 83 118-19 
124 12S 227 448 

PARKER 315 350 357 453 

PARKHURST (Parkus) 115 

PATERSON 397 

PEASE (Peas, Pees) 89 90 
92-3 95-102 135 156 158 
160 166 190 212 230 262-3 
299 304 311 313 316 317 
341 348-9 352-3 357 387-8 
390-3 417 426 435-6 441 
447 449 456 492 

PECK 386 

PELHAM 228 

PENN 95 

PENT 425 

PEPPERRELL 302-4 321 

PERCIVAL (Pacefull) 351 

PERKINS 158 167 243 

PETERS 120 220 

PHILIP II 78 

PHILLIPS 351 

PHINNEY 456 

PHIPS 75 181-2 185-7 189 
191-4 196 198 200 259 299 
300 

PIGOT 368 371 

PIERCE 84-5 94 101 121 228 

PIERSON 233 235 

PITT 309 321 400 

POMEROY 371 

POOLE 56 

POPE 310 415 

PORCACCHI 77 

PORTER 408 



PORTOLANO 77 

POTTER 341 

POWELL 386 

POWNALL. 312 

PREBLE 410 447 

PRESCOTT 332 

PREST 106 

PRINCE (Prence) 126-7 153 

215 222-3 226 232 236 240 

245-6 248-9 253 
PRING 61 78 

PURCELL (Persell) 341 415 
PURCHAS 65 70 78 

QUADUS 77 

SALE iSearle) 132 135 263 

SALTERN 65 

SANDERSON 496 

SARSON (Sarsen) 135-6 154 
158 169 170 174 178 188 
190 195-6 261 264 266-8 
434 460 464 478 

SAVAGE 118 192 

SCOTT 382 

SELLAR 75 

SEWALL 43 75 185 252-3 
301 481-4 493 

SHALER 17 19 21 25 

SHAW 337 341 348 352 388 
406 415 

SHED 337 

SHIRLEY 306 307 453 

SHOULER 426 

SHREWSBURY (Earl of) 299 

SIMMONS 457 

SIMPSON 111 424 

SINCLAIR 484 

SKIFFE 156 158 166-7 183 
185 188-9 265 271 290 292 
301-2 310 313 315 319 337 
341-2 348 352 428 473 
483-4 504 

SLAFTER 58 

SLOUGHTER 178-9 191 

SMITH 34 36 67 69 70 84-5 
101 115 130 132 135 154 
156 158 178 187 190 195-7 
262 281 316 318-19 329 
334-7 340-4 346-9 352-4 
357 362 375 380-1 385 
388-92 404-6 414-15 417 
421 423 427 431 448 450 
455-6 478 

SNOW 320 424 

SOUTHACK 79 301 

SOUTHAMPTON (Earl) 68 

SPEED 76 

SPOONER 283-4 

SPRAGUE 284 349 353 444 

STARBUCK 442 

STEENWYCK 147 

STERLING (Stirling, Star- 
ling) 72 80-3 85 97 131 
133 137-9 142 144 146 148 
156 157 162 371 374 376 
380 393 396-7 481 

STEVENS 56 

STEWART (Stuart) 273 313 
337 341 348 353 390 417 

STILEMAN 82 

STOBNICZA 77 

STONE .502 

STOUGHTON 200 202 

STRACHEY 75 

STREET 65 

STUCKLEY 301 

STURTON 69 

STUYVESANT 154 

SULLIVAN 368 

SUMNER 275 279 281 

SWASEY 337 354 

SWAIN 349 352 

SYMES 373 



531 



History of Martha's Vineyard 



TABOR 132 

TAILOR 'Tavlor) 351 483 

TARNANCE 337 

THACHER (Thatcher) 306 

314 319-20 351 480 482 484 
THAXTER 90 92 97-8 212 

256 332 423 425 444 448-9 

456 483-4 
THOMAS 189 250 314 
THOMPSON 253 
THORNE 77 
THORNTON 76 
TILTON 212 318 330 344 346 

349 350 353 361 375 385 

395 423 428 435 
TITUS 351 
TOBEY 317 
TOLMAN 486 

TORRE Y 251-2 480 482-5 
TOWNSEND 201 483 
TRAPP 91 92 95-7 99 135 

136 158 470 
TRUMBULL 24 42 53 343 
TRUXTUN 409 
TUCKER 65 76 337 408 
TUPPER 122 
TURNER 108 111 483 
TYLER 279 
TYNG 123 303 

ULPIUS 77 
UNDERHILL 72 74 80 94 

VANDERHOOP 49 
VANNER 108 
VAHANE 83 371 



VERNON 302 
VERRAZZANO 59 76 77 
VINES 75 80 81 83 89 
VINCENT (Vinson) 56 91-3 
95-9 135 158 166 168 190 
212 318 337 341 348 353 
388 390-2 424 426 428 477 

WAGENAAR 154 

WAGNER 466 

W^ALDO 273 

WALDRON 209 319 348 408 

WALKER 301 

WALLEY (Walev) 185 188-9 

337 341 348 481 
WALPOLE 321 
WARREN 57 231 321 
WASHINGTON 314 355 368 

386-7 392 400 
WATERMAN 108 
WATSON 158 
WAYNE 370 
WEBBER 350-1 
WEBSTER 371 470 
WEEKS 135 158 251 313 

317-9 342 354 357 426 431 

444 452 482 
WELD 238 
WEST 158 270 304 306-11 

315-17 319 324 330 342 

353 357-S 422 445 454-5 

495 
WHELDEN (Whelding.Whel- 

len) 313 317 319 342 349 

350 409 
WHITE 350 



WHITFIELD 52 54 73-4 128 

214 221-3 
WHITING 21 
WHITMAN 257 284 
WHITNEY 428 
WHITTEN 158 
WIGGLESWORTH 461 481 

497 
WILKINS 353 
WILLIAM III 178-9 181 189 

255 259 260 326 
WILLIAMS 50 52-3 74 115 

121 351 408 
WILSON 128 219 
WIMPENNY 410 
WING 130 
WINGFIELD 60 
WINSLOW 34 70 74 306 342 

353 410 
WINTHROP 49 74-5 80 86 

94 118 120 123 128 186-7 

231 235 471 495-6 
WISWALL 181 252 485 
WOLFE 312-15 
WOLLEN (WoUinsr) 190 
WOOD 31 34 53 78 
WORTH 187 262 275 329 

338 390 422-3 425 447-8 

463 483 485-6 
WRIGHT 269 

YORK (Duke of) 75 139-141 
144-5 147 153-4 156 163 
173 177 265 269 

YOUNG 337 341 349 



532 



INDEX OF PLACES 



The town names, Chilmark, Edgartown and lisbury, 
and the names Massachusetts, Martha's Vineyard and Dukes 
County are not included in this index. 



ABEL'S HILL 254 502 504 

AG AW AM 41 70 

ALBANY (N.Y.) 143 153 186 

191 194 255 299 312 
AMSTERDAM 78-9 
ANNAPOLIS ROYAL (see 

also Port Roval) 314-5 317 

319 
ANJALACA ID. 499 
AQUAMPACHE 383 
AQUIDNET 32 
AQUINNIUH 50-1 
ASHAPPAQUONSETT 55 
ATTLEBOROUGH 486 
AZORES 60 

BAFFINS BAY 435 

BARNSTABLE 33 186 212 
259 261 284 308 405 435 

BARBADOES 43.".-6 487 

BASINGBOURNE (Eng.) 104 

BATAVIA 444 

BEDINGFIELD (Eng.) 105 

BELLE ISLE 370 

BERING STRAITS 443 

BERMUDA 120 

BILLOCKLEY (Eng.) 105 

BILLINGSGATE 231 

BISCAY (Bay of) 61 

BLACK WATER BROOK 39 

BLOCK ISLAND 59 66 142 
299 

BOREHAM (Eng.) 110 

BOSTON 40 71 80 94 119 125 
128 138 143 154 160 167-9 
178 180-4 188-9 191-2 195 
210-11 223 228 231 234 236 
244 247-9 252 254 259 260 
266-8 273-4 277 295 301-3 
306-8 328 332 349 351 364 
368 397 406 408-9 413 434 
436 461 465 471 481 483 
485 491 493 498 

BRAINTREE 75 461 

BRAY (Eng.) 105 

BRAZIL 435 439 450 

BREST (Fr.) 408 

BRISTOL (Eng.) 114 181 

BRISTOL (Mass.) 56 259 482 

BROOKLYN 258 458 

BROUGHTON GIFFORD 
(Eng.) 104 

BUFFALO 111 

BUNKER HILL 332 367 

BUZZARDS BAY 19 33 37 
63 66 369 372 423 427 455 

CALLAO 442 

CAMBRIDGE 236-8 255 

CAPE ANN 61 

CAPE COD 17 18 23 27 58 
61-2 65 67-9 72-3 77-8 
85-6 100 138 142 181 193 
256 299 320 350 409 431-2 
435 

CAPE MAY 142 



CAPE POGE (Capawack, Ca- 
poag, Capawok) 17 21 27 
34-6 67-70 72 79 83 137-8 
181 189 193 196-7 215 267 
499 
CASTLETOWN (Ire.) 173 
CHAPPAQUIDDICK (Chaub- 
acjuedick) 18 19 21 27 34 
35 39 42 76 78 87-8 129 
184 189 240 242 248 2.50-1 
283 466 483 487 
CHARLES RIVER 123-4 
CHARLESTOWN 117-18 
CHATHAM 67 
CHESTER (Eng.) 65 
CHICKEMMOO 25 40 55 199 

432 460 475 
CHRISTIANTOWN 40 53 240 

251 486 
CLARK'S COVE 369 
CLEVES 66 
CONNECTICUT 102 105 245 

310 487 495 
COSSOMSETT 37 
COTAMY (.see Katama) 
COTTAGE CITY 21 458 
CRACKATUXETT 21 
CUMBERLAND (R.I.) 20 
CUTTYHUNK 49 51 63 65 

DANCING FIELD 53 
DARTMOOR (Eng.) 423-4 
DARTMOUTH (Eng.) 60 
DARTMOUTH (Mass.) 347 

355 359 364 366 399 405 

455 499 
DARTMOUTH fN.S.) 440 
DAVIS STRAIT 450 
DEDHAM 83 

DELAWARE 89 94 100 140 
DENNY SUTTON (Eng.) 110 
DEVIL'S BRIDGE 49 51 
DINTON (Eng.) 105-6 110-13 
DORCHESTER 302 
DORSET (Eng.) 104-5 
DOUAY (Ft.) 113 
DOVER CLIFFS (Eng.) 20 63 
DUBLIN (Ire.) 308 
DUNKIRK (Fr.)303 
DUXBURY 180 284 

EAST CHOP 22 348 457 466 
EASTHAM 70 432 
EASTVILLE 55 421 445 448 

EDINBURGH (Scot.) 322 

ELIZABETH ISLANDS 17 18 
21 35 49 60 63-4 72 78-9 
82-3 138 145 151 173-6 
184-5 196 198 208 244-5 
251 258 260 268 275 277 
346 349 355 358-9 361 365 
466 487 

ENFIELD (Conn.) 101-2 

EXMOUTH (Eng.) 65 



FAIRHAVEN 381 

FALMOUTH (Mass.) 33 343 
355 365 371 376 381-3 395 
452-3 455 461 465 491 

FALMOUTH (Entr.) 60-1 308 

FALKLAND ID. 450 

FARM NECK 383 

FELIX NECK 223 

FONTHILL (Eng.) 106 112 

FORT EDWARD 310 316 

FORT JAMES 142 144-5 147 
165 172 179 265 267 

FORT WM. HENRY 183 

FORTON (Eng.) 415 

FOVENT (Eng.) 113 

FRAMINGHAM 125 

FYDLETON (Eng.) 113 

GAY HEAD (Cliffs) 17 18 
20-1 25 47-8 50 63 177 198 
230-1 237 239 243 248 
2.50-1 254 256-7 424 466 
475 482-5 

GAY HEAD (Neck) 482 484-5 

GERMANTOWN 370 

GHENT (Bel.) 416 

GLASTONBURY 102 

GLOUCESTER 104-5 

GOSNOLD 428 

GRAVELLY ID. 262 498 

GREAT BADDOW (Eng.) 95 

GREAT HARBOR 28 95 98 
101 131 136 146 151 161 
216 223 293 460 

GREAT HERRING POND 21 
42 223 

GREAT MARSHES 90 100 

GREAT POND 90-1 

GREAT ROCK 489 

GREENLAND 435 437 443 

GREEN HOLLOW 90 93 102 

GRUNDESBURGH 'Eng.) 60 

GUERNSEY 370 

GUILFORD 221 

GUINEA 435 

HALIFAX (N.S.) 210 314 351 
364 407 

HARLEM 355 

HARTFORD 424 

HATFIELD (Eng.) 60 

HAVANA (Cuba) 370 

HAXTON (Ens.) 113-14 

HELMINGSTON (Eng.) 105 
HI 

HEREFORD (Eng.) 104-5 

HESSETT (Eng.) 60 

HINGHAM 471 

HOLMDEN rEng.) 105 

HOMES HOLE 39 78 184 
238 278 288 315 331-2 335 
347 371-3 376-8 381-2 
384-5 395 404 407 412-14 
421 424 433 445 452-3 
456-7 460 463-4 481-3 
485-6 497 499 502 



533 



History of Martha's Vineyard ^ ^ -^ 



HOPKINTON 125 
HOWICK (Enar.) 370 
HUDSON BAY 450 
HUDSON RIVER 355 
HUDSON (N.V.) 447 
HYANNIS 455-6 

IPSWICH fEn?.) 95 115 
ISLES OF SHOALS 72 120 
193 

JAMAICA 487 
JAMESTOWN 65 

KAMSCHATKA 443 
KATAMA 20-2 55 223 459 
KEEPHIGON 40 176 
KELLWAY (Ens.) 104 
KEMPLEY (Ens.) 105 
KENNEBEC RIVER 137 
KINGSMILL ID. 448 
KINGSTON (N.H.) 499 
KINGSTON (R.I.) 364 
KITTERY 303 
KUHTUHQUETUET 42 
KUTTASHIMMOO (see Tash- 
moo) 

LAGOON 18-21 42 410 445 
LAKE GEORGE 306 309 311 

316 
LAKE CHAMPLAIN 305-6 
LAMBERT'S COVE 347 444 

453 461 
LA SOUPCONNEUSE 66 76 
LEBANON 310 470 
LEITH (Scot.) 364 
LEXINGTON 3.30-2 
LINKENHURST (Eng.) 115 
LONDON (Eng.) 67-8 78-9 

105 114-15 118-19 121 174 

178 181 194 223 228-9 

240-1 248-9 304 322 396 

400 406 413 488 
LONG BURTON (Eng.) 105 
LONG ISLAND 72 80 137 

139 2.58 299 351-2 431 
LOOE 'Eng.) 104 
LOSTWITHIEL (Eng.) 104 
LOUISBURG 302-5 311-2 

316 319 321 
LUNENBWRG (N.S.) 317 
LYNN 80 124 490 

MAINE 30 37 72 81 83 136-41 

159 264-5 800-1 304-5 
MALEBARRE 65 
MANHATTAN 66-7 73 203 
MANOMET 70 
MARBLEHEAD 119 
MASHACKET 42 
MATTAKEESIT (Mattachist) 

70 90 136 138 
MATTOAX (Mattawack. see 

Long Island) 
MEDFORD 117-21 126-7 
MENDON 250 
MENEMSHA 18 19 347 
MIDDLETOWN 151 374 480 
MILL BROOK 280 360 
MILL HILL 57 
MILTON 253 
MINDEN (Ger.) 370 
MONOMOY (Monaraock) 65 

67 70 
MONUMENT BAY 455 
MORVAL (Eng.) 104 
MUSKEGET (Muskeekit) 18 

61 82 262 

NANTUCKET 18 21 23 33 37 
49 61 71-2 75 77-84 91 112 
124 133 137-40 145 149 
150 152 155 162-3 165-6 
173 181 184 187 189 193-4 



196 201 203 208 212 231 
243-5 256 258-61 264-&269 
271 277-8 286 290 296 299 
300 343 372 375 379 405 
423 431-8 440-3 446-8 
455-6 461 466 498-9 

NARRAGANSETT 37 57 59 
72 121 

NASHAMOIESS 25 

NASHAQUITSA (Nashawa- 
queedsee) 20-1 176 

NASHOWAKEMMUCK 
(Nashauekempiuk) 42 176 
218 228 240 250 

NATICK 43 225 245 

NATUCK 21 35 184 

NAUSET 70 

NAUSHON 49 268 347 466 

NEPISSIEH 40 

NEMPANICKLICKANUK 44 

NEWBURY(PORT) 85 364 
465 

NEW HAVEN 161 167 222 

NEW JERSEY 140 

NEWPORT 19 32 37 357 366 
368-9 375 383 386 

NEWTOWN 27 117 

NEW YORK 17 35 59 73 77 
139 140 152 154 160-2 
166-7 171-3 176-7 179 
180-1 186-7 191-2 194-7 
206-8 243-4 255-9 261 265 
267 294 296-9 301 306 313 
316 354 364 S68 372 376 
386 393 395-6 399 400-1 
422 425 461 

NOMAN'S LAND 17 18 21 
31-2 35 48 62 66 73-4 76 
78-9 132 151 174-7 196 
251 258 260 275 277 435 
484 

NONAMESSET 47 

NOPE (Noepe) 32-4 37 45 49 
50 52 66 70 87 189 

NORUMBEGA 77 

NOVA SCOTIA 36-7 301 303 
316-7 368 443 

NUNNEPOG 39 42 46 87 218 
239 242 250 460 

NYMEGEN (Hoi.) 66 

OAK BLUFFS 292 423 458-9 

466 
ONKOKEMMY(Onkonkemay) 

42 240 250 484 
OSWEGO 309 
OTLEY (Eng.) 60 
OXFORD (Eng.) 104-5 
OYSTER BAY 65 
OYSTER POND 27 

PEAKED HILL 18 

PEASE'S POINT 89 91 

PEMAQUID 137 139 

PENOBSCOT 57 67 409 

PENNSYLVANIA 299 

PEQUEET (Pequot) 72 

PLAINS OF ABRAHAM 315 

PHILIPPINES 429 466 

PHIPSBURG 181 

PHILADELPHIA 323 351 
368 459 

PLYMOUTH 45 .57 70-1 90-1 
109 119 136 143 152-3 169 
180-1 239 240 243-4 246 
259 260 264-6 268 284 302 
307 355 394 407 409 431 
461 465 491 496 501 

PLYMOUTH fEng.) 69 408 
415 

PISCATAQUA (Piscataway) 
72 137 143 193 409 

POCHA 21 25 

POHOGANUT (Pahauknit) 46 

POKANOKET 296 



PONQUATESSE 39 
PORTLAND 465 
PORTSMOUTH (N.H.) 62 

143 465 
PORT PENN 89 94-5 100 
PORT ROYAL (see Annapolis 

Royal) 301-2 485 
POTOMAC 458 
POWNET 70 

PROSPECT HILL 18 485 
PROVIDENCE 359 -''64 368 

458 
PROVINCETOWIi . .58 

QUAKER HILL 368 
QUANAIMES 55 176 
OUANESSOWOG 176 
QUEBEC 181 192 299 300 

302 305 312-15 319 
QUIBERON (Fr.) 408 
QUICK'S HOLE 371-2 455 

RAGGED PLAIN 19 
READING 85 
REDMAIN (Eng.) 104 
ROCHEFORT (Fr.) 370 
RHODE ISLAND 37 143 277 

296 369 371 374 482 497 

499 
ROME 113 
ROXBURY 167 366 

SACO 83 

SAGADAHOC 72 

SALEM 83 95 101-2 115 119 

324 465 
SALISBURY 110 112 
SANCHACANTACKETT 

(Sahnchecontuekqaet, Sen- 

gecontacket) -<* 40 42 243 

250 
SANDWICH 90 . T 130 461 

465 484 
SARUM (see Salisbury) 
SANKATY HEAD 21 
SAUGUS 119 
SAYBROOK 75 
SCITUATE 167 461 465 
SCRUBBY NECK 42 
SECONQUIT (Seconkguf.) 250 
SECONNET 48 70 
SEEKONK 235 
SHREWSBURY 130 
SHERBORN 262 
SIERRA LEONE 423 
SIMANCAS 77 78 
SOUTHAMPTON (Eng.) 114 
SOUTHBORO 125 
SOUTH SHOAL 91 
SOUTH WATER ST. 247 
SOW AND PIGS 63 
SQUIPNOCKET 20 21 50 
STARBUCK'S NECK 91-2 

167 
STONY POINT 89 
STRAUMEY 58-9 76 
ST. COLUMB MAJOR (Eng.) 

104 
ST. CROIX 137 
ST. JEAN DE LUZ (Fr.) 61 
ST. KITTS (W.I.) 181 487 
ST. LAWRENCE 302 305 315 

435 
SUCCONNESSETT 452 483 

TAKEMMY 28 39 40 42 151 

228 240 460 
TALHANIO 240 
TANGIERS 174 
TARPAULIN COVE 142 186 

331 348 364-5 371 423 
TASHMOO (Kuttashimraoo) 

18 19 25 39 40 461 
TAUNTON 250 256 



s 



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